Alyssa Pouliot
186 Marlboro Street
Keene, NH 03431
September 27, 2013
Student Teaching Personal/Professional Essay
Dear Cooperating Teacher,
My name is Alyssa Pouliot and I really appreciate your consideration for potentially
placing me in your classroom this semester for my student teaching. I am a senior at Keene State
College and am majoring in Early Childhood Education as well as Sociology. I was born and
raised in Exeter, New Hampshire where I live with my mom, dad, and younger sister who is
currently a freshman at the University of New England. During the school year I live off campus,
with five of my close friends, who are also education majors, which provides me with a lot of
opportunities to talk about teaching experiences and share ideas. In my free time I really enjoy
staying active and exercising, and I feel it helps me to manage stress very well. I also love
reading. My mom fostered a love for reading in me at a young age, and that is something that I
want to instill in my students as well. One other personal quality that I will bring to the
classroom is my love for creativity. I have always loved to scrapbook and I love bringing those
skills into classroom activities whenever possible.
In terms of prior teaching experience, I have a lot of experience with pre-k children. In
high school I was a part of an Early Childhood Education program my junior and senior year
where every other week I spent three hours a day in a center. My senior year we also had practice
creating lesson plans. For my Methods I course here at Keene State I was placed in a preschool
classroom at the Children’s Learning Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. I have
also worked in the toddler room at the Child Development Center here at Keene State since the
spring of my junior year. This summer I also volunteered at Camp Sunshine for a week. The
camp serves as a retreat for children with life threatening illnesses and their families. I was a lead
teacher in the preschool age classroom, and absolutely loved the experience. It was both
humbling and rewarding. In terms of experience with children in the primary grades, the only
major experience I have was my Methods II placement in a 1st grade classroom at Jonathan
Daniels Elementary. I was also very involved with literacy activities in my Methods II placement
at Jonathan Daniels Elementary. I loved my elementary school experience at J.D. and would love
to have an experience like that again. One final piece of experience that I have, which has taught
me a lot is my involvement in Kappa Delta Pi; Keene State’s Education Honor Society. I have
been apart of KDP since the spring of my junior year and it has taught me a lot of information
that will be useful when working in the early childhood field.
One of my goals for student teaching this semester is to simply become increasingly
comfortable with my classroom management skills with minimal assistance from my cooperating
teachers. When I graduate from Keene State with a degree in early childhood education, I want
to be 100% confident that I could be hired as a classroom teacher and be confident in my abilities
in maintaining classroom routine and instruction. One other goal I have for student teaching is to
extend upon my knowledge when it comes to creating learning experience plans for children of
all ages. While my Methods II course provided me with a solid foundation of knowledge in
creating LEP’s in literacy, mathematics, and science, I want to extend upon that knowledge as
much as I possibly can!
To put it simply, I cannot wait to get started in your classroom! I want to thank you for
your consideration in placing me at your school as well as for opening up your classroom and
offering up your time to help me learn. I promise to work my hardest this semester, and look
forward to meeting you and your students!
Sincerely,
Alyssa Pouliot
alyssa.pouliot@ksc.keene.edu
603-686-6964 (Cell)