From WITTIE

Cfarm006
I am a junior/senior at ODU and I can not wait to graduate with my BA. Once I do I am going right in to getting my masters in history.
Name	Courtney Pollock
Birth Date	February 24, 1989
Gender	female
Contact
Location
City	chesapeake
State	VA
Country	USA
Education
School	Old Dominion University
Major	History
Teaching Level	Secondary

 

Courtney Pollock

Hello, my name is Courtney Else, I am a junior/ senior at ODU. I live in Chesapeake Virginia and have for the past few years, I was a senior but changed my major to secondary education from history. I was, well am a history geek, growing up I hated the subject and was ridiculously horrible at it as well. It was not until my first college history class changed my whole aspect of learning. I went from falling asleep in history class to becoming completely inthralled into the subject. She had a very hands on approach even in a college classroom and she some how made the subject interesting. After all my 400 level history classes I realized that I really cant do that much with my major except for write books or do research or teach. Since I already have a feel for teaching because I am a trainer at my job I figured might as well teach for in the real world. 

I was born on a Marine base in Havelock,NC, I have moved all over since then though, about 9 years ago my dad was stationed in Norfolk and retired from the military here. Both my dad and my mom were in the Marines thats it how they met, and fell in love. I loved having military parents the structured life was very productive. My parents were also always there for my when I wasa child and they still are today just not near by at all and I thank them a great deal for shaping me into the person that I have become annd giving me the strenght to be on my own. I do like Virginia I cant wait to move again though. I have four older brothers one is stationed in Japan at the moment, and the others are all over the US. My sister and I live in the seven citys area at the moment, but I can not wait to leave again. I also have some amazing friends my best friend turned into my boyfriend, whom is in South Carolina at the mean time for his education but he tends to mean the world to me so I can not wait till he gets back, My other best friends are placed in either cali, texas, and Florida but these are my closest friends and I travel alot just to see them! I do love to sing thats a passion of mine, and not like in the shower, I was in the Virginia Choir till I realized I hated opera. Lastly a secret of mine is that I love arts n crafts, yet I am quite bad at art. 

My Teaching Philosophy

Well, I was a military child so for I did switch schools a lot, when I was in 6th grade my mom realized that I was about to go to five different schools in five years. Once my mom realized that she decided to homeschool me till high school. I loved it and now being older I think that it was the best choice. Homeschooling has also impacted my teaching philosophy, I feel that students should have a very hands on approach to learning. I know that schools make this difficult especially with SOLs and the drastic ratio of students to teachers but I do believe that hands on learning even in todays schools is possible.

I think that when it comes to learning having fun in the classroom to an extent is one way that children or even adults can understand the material better. I think that comes from my homeschool days but my mom taught me that there are ways to learn dry boring material without having a boring class. I would love to become that teacher that changes the way a student sees a certain subject, like the way my first history professor in college did.