Work Experience

Substitute Teacher

New York City Department of Education

William Anderson M.S. 51
Brooklyn, NY 2010-2011

At William Anderson Middle School I taught Computer Applications to 6th and 7th grade special education students. These students mainly had behavior and speech issues. I learned to work with IEPs and ILPs and to modify my lessons to support 18-22 students at a time.
Topics taught were Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. They learned Frames, Pixie and ImageBlender from Tech4Learning. They learned basic web publishing and computer programming using LOGO.
In addition to Computer Applications I taught one class of 6th grade mathematics. Teaching math used different skills than teaching computer applications. I learned quickly with the support of my colleagues and a math coach that I met with twice a week. I enjoyed my experience teaching math.

Bookkeeping with QuickBooks

New York City, NY 2007-2009

Because I was attending college full time with a schedule that changed every six months I needed a job that could afford me a good amount of flexibility. I decided to start my own bookkeeping business. I work with three to five small-business clients that have a relatively small amount of financial transactions per month. Some clients I work with once a week, bi-weekly, or as needed. They have always been accomodating to my class schedule by changing my days I work or allowing me a day off to study for exams.

In addition to the regular bookkeeping I've prepared new businesses to use QuickBooks, clearing up backlogs of work or cleaning up existing records. I've provided QuickBooks training to new companies and trained their bookeepers.

Not only did I learn new accounting and bookkeeping skills as I went along, but I also acquired skills on operating small businesses. I worked with a wide variety of companies from boutique advertising to travel and tourism to financial services. I know about the hard work and dedication it takes, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

Paraprofessional / Technology Educational Assistant / Media Center Educational Assistant

Crawford Elementary Aurora, CO 1996-2004

I started at Crawford Elementary as a paraprofessional. I would supervise the lunchroom and playground. I also assisted in the classroom. Teaching has always been a passion for me and I was excited to be able to help out.

At the end of the school year I was promoted to Educational Assistant and along with three others given the duty of teaching technology to students K-5. In a school of almost 1000+ students going to school year round I would be teaching about 250. I would write my own lesson plans and teach six classes a day. I learned many teaching skills over the year as well as learning how computer works and how to fix them.

For the 1999 school year Crawford went from a year-round calendar to a traditional one. We lost approximately 200 students and many staff members. The technology department was now comprised of myself and one other person. I taught more tech classes and assumed the role of Building Technology Facilitator. I now was in charge of the building's technology needs. Crawford also implemented building-wide e-mail and voice mail. I trained 75+ staff members to use Novell Groupwise and their new phones. It was a challenge to develop training sessions for different proficiency levels but I learned that competent users would help the new users. Over the next two years I continued to train new staff members on current applications and troubleshooting and repairing our hardware and software. At this time I also became the facilitator for SASIxp, a District student database. This was my first experience with databases and I enjoyed learning all the intricate details including queries, groups and lists..

In the year 2000 I was given the responsibility of the school library. The library/tech department that two years ago had a staff of 7 now was down to two. The work load was greater but I was up for the challenge. My job function now included the day-to-day library circulation, shelving and story time but also the important charges of the annual budget, purchasing, weeding of the collection and supervision of volunteers. I recall one day I was sitting on the floor shelving books and it struck me. When I was younger one of the jobs I wanted to have when I grew up was a librarian. And here I was! In the four years as the librarian I tackled the budget and increased my book collection by 75%. With a bond election I purchased new shelves, furniture and carpet. I encouraged my students to read more and to check out more books. My circulation numbers increased every year even after a significant drop in student enrollment. With new books teachers were using the library more often resources and I would assist them.

Substitute Teacher 2002-2004

I held a short-term authorization substitute license from the State of Colorado. This allowed me to substitute within my school. If a teacher was absent and unable to get a substitute in their place I was placed into the classroom to teach for the day. Often I was called at a moment's notice so flexibility was key.

This was also an ideal learning environment for me. I was knowledgeable about the curriculum, I knew the students and their learning abilities and they knew me and were comfortable with me teaching them. I was able to practice my teaching skills in a hands on environment.