Kim Taylor

My name is Kimberly Taylor and I am a recent graduate of Ferris State University with a Bachelor's in Elementary Education and minors in Language Arts and Math.  My challenges that resulted in strengths are what make me who I am today. With that being said, I am going to walk you through both my educational and personal hardships and outcomes. 

 I was adopted by amazing parents who help me in completing my goals, stand by my side and most importantly believe in me. Eight was the magic number before my parents decided to stop adopting kids. That’s right; I have 12 siblings in total, seven adopted two from my dad, and three from my mom. The question I get asked the most is “How do you fit that many people in a house?” “My answer: We have a big house!” Growing up with that many siblings helped me develop responsibility and care for others at a young age.  

My skills of responsibility and caring for others started to really unfold when I started my career as a Jets Pizza employee. Going into my senior year of high school, I had the opportunity to become a part of a team. Jets Pizza allowed me to work with customer service and understand time management. These were two skills that came with great challenges that I had to work hard on to accomplish the tasks at hand. After only a year I had the great reward of becoming a manager which came with an increase in responsibilities. These responsibilities include helping to train workers, closing out the money drawer, making the weekly schedule, and increasing my patience and leadership skills involving workers and customers. Jets Pizza has played a large role in establishing the person I am and the teacher I will be in the classroom, as it was able to provide me with a skill set that is universal. 

My educational experiences shaped my philosophy on education by presenting me with ample opportunities to grow in my field of study. Starting at the Mecosta-Osceola County Career Center, where I was placed in a career building class geared towards elementary education, I validated my time as a mentor and a teacher`s assistant. I mentored a middle school age girl who had a lot of trauma happen in her life. She was falling behind and I was there to help. At first we had our hardships, she did not trust me. With the use of great care and patience she and I were able to work together on trust which allowed me to assist in different aspects of her life including educational knowledge to graduate from high school. I am still in contact with her today and enjoy learning more about her and her accomplishments. Being a teacher’s assistant really opened my eyes to the structure and organization of a lesson plan. My mentor teacher allowed me to do a vocabulary review lesson with the students. I remember thinking to myself “I don’t even know some of these words!” But, I continued on, took the feedback and used it to continue to grow as a future educator. 

After graduating from high school, I started at Ferris State University where I completed many observations including my forty hours, eighty hours, and student teaching in the classroom. All of my experiences helped me grow, learn and achieve. In my forty hours, I was at Baldwin Elementary School in a resource room for first through fourth grade. After getting to know these students I based my lesson plans around superheroes. I was able to make a math lesson plan on how far we could throw Captain Americas shield. The students’ goal was to predict just how far it could actually go. Once the prediction was complete, they were able to demonstrate the actual measurements by using their feet to show the distance predicted. During my 80 hours, I was placed in a fourth grade classroom at Brookside Elementary where my professor observed a lesson plan that I had created to make an “antonym pizza.” This had involved each group receiving a “pre-cut slice of pizza,” with three pepperonis on it. The slice of pizza had a word that the students needed to determine antonyms for. Once the antonyms were determined they were written on each pepperoni to create a completed slice. Once each group finished their slice, we brought them all together to represent one whole pizza.  My Big takeaway from this lesson, (add) In my student teaching, I was in a kindergarten classroom at West Godwin Elementary. During this experience, I was able lead the morning message, reading/writing workshop, math lessons, rest time, centers and phonics. These experiences assisted in forming my educational philosophy, revamping my behavioral management plan and allowing me to grow as a more proficient and prepared educator. 

I have come a long way in both professional and personal aspects of my life. Many of my life accomplishments can be attributed to my love for growth and productivity. This love was developed over time through my parent’s teachings, my teacher’s guidance, and my own refined thoughts. I truly believe that every day that passes presents many opportunities to grow, learn, make mistakes, fix them and challenge yourself to do better or be a better person than you were yesterday. 

 I was given the chance to be a premier sub with North Godwin elementary. During this time I became M-step, Acadians and MAP testing certified. I took on duties such as a bus and lunch room. I made schedules and lesson plans to help struggling readers. I then sought out summer school teaching Kindergarten in person. My second time teaching summer school I was given the chance to teach virtual summer school. During this time I became google classroom certified level 1 and 2. I learned how to set up an online classroom, virtual meets and set up online activities. My 2021 school year I taught in person 3rd grade summer school. This is where I formed curriculum based lessons, created centers for both math and reading, and managed behaviors. My 2022 school year ended as an academic interventionist where I created academic lesson plans to match behaviors (good or bad). Lastly I helped classroom teachers implement behavior plans inside the classrooms. The school year of  August 2022-present I became an instructional para in the Reading Room. My skills set expanded to teaching phonic skills such as Silent E, CVC words, Digraphs and Blends.

My most relevant education is completing my Bachelors degree in Elementary Education.