Sophie Zellars

I spent the last year working as a language assistant in a primary (3-11 years old) and secondary school (12-17 years old) in Riberia Spain. During this time, I was able to continue growing my identity as an educator while also getting the incredible opportunity to learn a new education system. This experience taught me to be able to adapt to environments that I was not used to, be immersed in a different culture and language, and grow from moments of discomfort within teaching. I worked alongside the English department at my school and was able to create a learning environment that blended the tools that I learned in the U.S, and Spain.

I student taught in a second and fourth-grade classroom for a period during my last year of undergraduate at the University of North Texas. I spent my time with two different mentor teachers, which allowed me to gain a wide perspective on teaching practices and classroom management. I was given the freedom to explore many different new techniques in the classroom, and I slowly began to take over certain subjects. Then, gradually, I was teaching for the whole day. This experience allowed me to begin to build my identity as an educator and envision the type of teacher that I would one day be. I was also given the ability to communicate with parents and hold my own parent-teacher conference, under the supervision of my mentor teacher. At the end of my student teaching, I felt very grateful for my mentor teachers, not only being role models in education but also people from whom I could constantly learn new knowledge.