- Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions.

~ Author Unknown

                                                                                                                                                                       I am Allyson Bennett, a former graduate of Elizabethtown College with a degree and certifications in both Elementary and Special Education.  Currently, I am teaching kindergarten at Rolling Acres Elementary School which is part of the Littlestown Area School District.  I have twenty-three students; elevent girls, twelve boys.  I successfully completed my student teaching experience at Lickdale Elementary, which is part of the Northern Lebanon School District.  The first session of my field experience was in second grade.  For my second session, I was in a K-6 learning support room at Lickdale Elementary.

I am a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society, National Scholars Honor Society, Academic Integrity Committee, a member of the National Science Teacher's Association (NSTA), and a 2010-11 College Scholar.  Continuing my professional development, I have received certification by the Autism Spectrum Connections Organization and by the Pennsylvania Department of Education Office of Environment & Ecology and Project Food, Land & People in the use of Resources for Learning.  Also, I have received training in Kid Writing, Standards Aligned System (SAS), Learning Focused Schools, and Common Core Standards.

In addition to increasing my professional development, I have successfully completed courses offered by the Schuylkill Intermediate Unit#29 in attaining Level II Certification.  The courses which I have taken are the following:  Creating Inclusive Classrooms; SAS, A look at the Standards Aligned System; Classroom Instruction that Works:  Research Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement; Inclusive Teaching:  Teaching Children with Emotional and Behavioral Challenges; School Law and Public Education; Teaching Mathematics to Struggling Learners; Teaching Reading to Struggling Learners; and Multicultural and Socioeconomical Education. 

To gain more experience in the education field, I worked for the Schuylkill Intermediate Unit #29 in Mar Lin, PA.  I was an employee there since July 2008.  Every summer, I was a teacher's aide for the Extended School Year Program.  Two of the three years I worked at the IU #29, but one year I was placed at Williams Valley Elementary School with two students with speech impairments and another student who was legally blind.  Other experiences that I have received from the IU #29 are:  counsel house, emotional/behavioral support, multiple disabilities support, hearing impaired support, speech impaired support, and preschool.  I have worked in various schools including Williams Valley Elementary, Schuylkill Haven Elementary, St. Clair Elementary, and the North Vo-Tech School. 

Teaching is hard work, but very rewarding.  It is the type of profession that gives a teacher a warm feeling inside when a student understands a concept, makes new friends, or is excited to do a certain activity.  To become a teacher, a person must acquire that attributes of dedication, flexibility, and inspiration.  It is these attributes which separates the teachers who think outside the box versus the teachers who are there because teaching is just their job.  I have the personality where I want learning to be interactive and engaging so thinking outside the box is a requirement for me so my lessons are effective and engaging for the students.  Teaching is my passion and I will do my best to make sure my students strive to learn.