Self-Reflective Statement
This is my 2014 self-reflective statement. The self-reflective statement asks us to
consider our strengths, our accomplishments, and our areas for growth. In summary,
my strengths include my commitment to lifelong learning which I am demonstrating this
year through completion of my second masters degree at Walden University, renewal of
my Quality Matters Peer Reviewer Certification, and also my becoming a CCBC
student.
As to that last, my personal interest in wellness and fitness has led me to enroll in the
Applied Exercise Science Program here at CCBC as a degree and certificate-seeking
student. I am thoroughly enjoying my experience, and its giving me a lot of insight as to
what our students experience when they come here to the college and go through the
enrollment process, the financial aid process, the first day in class, meeting the
instructor, and being a student. Im getting some reminders about what that can be like
and how challenging that can be for our students, and I believe that is helping me a lot
as a teacher, not just adding to my own, personal enrichment.
In addition to being a lifelong learner, I have a commitment to college and community
service. I demonstrate that commitment through service on a number of committees: the
Global Education Projects Review Community, the Developmental Writing Committee,
and the Sustainability Committee. I also serve by participating in wellness initiatives
throughout the college, and I mentor basketball players on the Dundalk Campus. Im
also starting to get involved in the Culturally Responsive Teaching Initiative here at
CCBC.
In addition to my service and my learning, I also have a commitment to quality
instruction. This year, my focus has been on refining and revising my Blackboard
sections so that they are as clean, as updated, and as current as possible. I have had a
shift or rather our department has had a shift toward grading developmental courses on
a letter grade basis rather than just satisfactory/unsatisfactory, so I had to revise my
grading standards and my rubrics somewhat in my developmental classes to account
for that. In my online classes, I received my first-ever student evaluation results in an
online course, and those were overwhelmingly positive. Which gave me a testament to
that ongoing commitment to quality instruction.
So those are my areas of strength. As far as my accomplishments go, my biggest one
came on my sabbatical first of all, earning sabbatical was a wonderful
accomplishment but completing my second masters degree was also a tremendous
accomplishment for me. Im also proud of my participation in the Accelerated Learning
Program Faculty Institute back in January 2014. I worked closely with colleagues to
develop some instructional materials that can be used by other ALP faculty in the future,
participated in some wonderful discussions, and learned some skills that I can take back
to my own ALP classroom.
Other accomplishments that I had this year included going back to Quality Matters and
renewing my Peer Reviewer Certification for maybe the first time in probably four or five
years has been gratifying as well. Being reminded what those Quality Matters
standards are, reviewing them, and seeing them in practice by doing a practice course
review really helped lend a critical eye to my own online courses and web supplements.
As far as areas for growth, all these area that are my strengths are areas I want to
continue growing in as well. I plan to continue professionally developing myself. Ways
in which I plan to do that in the coming year include presenting at one or two of the
colleges professional development offerings, perhaps PDC in May or TLR next year. I
am working on proposals for those. I would like to attend a national conference and am
working on a proposal for that. I would also like to revise my English 102 curriculum for
my online course, I am currently developing an English 102 Honors course for the first
time, and in the coming year, I plan on looking at the new Community Book Connection
book, Prayers for the Stolen.
I plan to continue my professional development and also pursue quality instruction
every year, and last but not least, I want to grow my service. I plan to grow my service
by getting much more deeply involved in the Culturally Responsive Teaching Initiative
as well as continuing service on all committees in which I am currently involved.
For the moment, thats in terms of self-reflection. If you continue down the navigational
menu to professional assignment, you can hear more about my professional
assignment by clicking on that item.