Reagan Bachour's Moore Scholars Program Experience - Elementary Education Journey
Reagan Bachour, a senior Elementary Education major from Greenville, SC, shares her enriching experiences as a Moore Scholars Program participant. Through summer immersion projects and community engagement, Reagan highlights the importance of diversity, motivation, and addressing disparities in the education system.
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My Clemson Elementary Education Experience Reagan Bachour Elementary Education 2017
Background Information I am from Greenville, South Carolina. I am a senior Elementary Education major. I am graduating in May of 2017. I am pursuing add-on middle level licensure in mathematics. I graduated from Wade Hampton High School and the Greenville Fine Arts Center. I have one younger brother. I have a diverse background with my father being from the Middle East. I have played the violin for 17 years. I love to get outside and exercise. I decided to go into education because of a Teacher Cadet course I took in high school. During the extensive field placement in this course, I fell in love with education.
Moore Scholars Program Moore Scholars is a program for exemplary education students that pushes these pre-service teachers to promote diversity and help underserved schools and communities. This program has accomplished its goal with my educational experience. I feel more equipped and confident to be placed in teaching situations from which many would shy away. I am in the founding Cohort (Cohort A) of the Moore Scholars program.
Summer Immersion 1 Each summer, the Moore Scholars participate in a summer immersion project. My first immersion project was hosting a multimedia arts camp on Clemson s campus for the students at the Tamassee-Salem DAR school. This project demonstrated to me that all students bring intelligence to the classroom and all are able to learn. Teachers need to find projects and assignments that are motivating for students so that they can reach their full potential.
Summer Immersion 2 The Moore Scholars went on a trip to Bamberg, SC. While we were there, we taught poetry to the students at Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School. The students wrote their own poetry and had a culminating poetry slam at the end of the week. The theme for the week was Finding your voice. The experience taught me how students will perform incredibly well when they are motivated to complete a task. The experience also showed me the awful disparities in our education system.
Summer Immersion 3 For the third immersion experience, Cohort A of the Moore Scholars returned to Bamberg. It was incredible to be able to form a strong relationship with this community and be able to nurture that relationship. Cohort A taught poetry at the elementary school in Bamberg. Cohort B repeated what Cohort A had done the previous year at the high school.
Greenville Early College The Moore Scholars program additionally allowed me to help host field trips to Clemson University for the students from the Greenville Early College. The Greenville Early College is a middle and upcoming high school in Greenville that targets lower performing students. The goal of the school is to push students to attend college after graduation. We hosted the field trips for the students because studies have shown that the more the students are exposed to college campuses, the more likely they are to attend college.
Calhoun Honors College I was accepted into the Calhoun Honors College at Clemson University as an incoming freshman. Being a part of the honors college has greatly enhanced my educational experience as a pre-service teacher. Through Dr. Tyminski s math methods course and Dr. Deaton s science methods course, I am able to pursue opportunities to be published as an undergrad. I co-authored a piece in Dr. Tyminski s class that was published near the beginning of this month. Bachour, R.M., Braun, S., & Tyminski, A. M. (2016). Problem solvers solutions: Which lake is bigger?. Teaching Children Mathematics, 23(4), 212-214.
GoalPOST I was a GoalPOST after-school tutor through Clemson University at La France Elementary School for 1.5 years. This experience taught me more about classroom management than any course at Clemson. I highly recommend for elementary, special ed, and early childhood majors to participate in GoalPOST. GoalPOST builds one s instructional skills and classroom management skills. This experience also is incredible for developing mentoring relationships with students.
TOP Soccer I participated in Clemson University s TOP Soccer program in the fall of 2015. The program is designed to allow a recreational soccer program for students with disabilities in the community. This program helped me understand how to better accommodate students needs. I was blessed to be able to support a student in her after school soccer activities.
CUIRA Student Council I am Vice President of Clemson University s chapter of the International Literacy Association. This organization, along with the course, Reading and Responding to Literature for Children in the Elementary Classroom, has given me an appreciation and an awareness for the importance of quality children s literature and children s reading. The CUIRA has helped me to develop the skills to choose quality books for my classroom library.
Outside Experiences Frazee Center In the summer of 2016, I had the privilege of interning at the Frazee Center. The Frazee Center is located in Greenville, South Carolina. This organization provides a free after-school program and summer camp for children in poverty in Greenville. The organization s values that are instilled into the children are, Work hard, Respect authority, Love everyone, and Forgive quickly. I worked with a group of third-fifth grade girls for the entire summer. This experience taught me so much about how a lasting and meaningful relationship can mean the difference between a child s success or failure. I also learned that to be a successful educator, I need to make sure that my students basic needs are met in order for them to learn.
Mathnasium and Private Math Tutor I have also worked at Mathnasium as a tutor and as a private math tutor. Both of these experiences have helped me improve my math instructional strategies. When a student was severely struggling, I had to try several different problem-solving methods until students were able to hit that light bulb moment.
Future Plans I plan to teach in Greenville, SC after graduation. Because of the diversity of experiences that I have had, I now feel better equipped and comfortable educating and mentoring students from diverse backgrounds and even tough backgrounds. After the summer of 2017, I will be middle school certified in mathematics in addition to my elementary certification. In the near future, I plan to get my masters. I want to have a few years experience before pursuing this degree.