1. The Important Things About Me
A Resume of Lauren Cobb
Licensed to teach 4-9
Language arts and social studies
Endorsed for 4-9 reading
Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction
A Copy-change Experience
Patterned after The Important Book
Written by Margaret Wise Brown & illustrated by Leonard Weisgard
An important thing about me is that I am a teacher, both inside and
outside of the classroom.
I’ve substitute taught subjects as varied as 5th
grade band and 12th
grade history.

2. I’ve student taught 4th
grade language arts and social studies at Akron’s Ritzman
Community Learning Center, where I learned the value of professional learning
communities.
I’ve taught 4th
grade language arts and social studies at Streetsboro’s Henry Defer
Intermediate School, where I partnered with the art and music teachers to help students
better understand the Underground Railroad.
I’ve taught 4th
and 5th
grade small groups at Twinsburg’s George G. Dodge Intermediate
School, where we explored trade books, poetry, and Native American history together.
I’ve used story cubes, interactive journals, reader’s theaters, and graphic organizers to
inform my students of story structure, key events and people leading up to the Civil War,
the impact Tecumseh had on the War of 1812, and the similarities and differences
between nouns and pronouns.
I’ve taught mini lessons on the rock cycle during a scavenger hunt in Senegal and basic
hygiene techniques in the jungles of Ecuador.
I’ve persuaded fellow classmates of the importance of the national park system and
informed them of how Alzheimer’s and dementia are addressed in today’s health care
system.
But an important thing about me is that I am a teacher, both inside
and outside of the classroom.
An important thing about me is I am a student.
I believe the more I know, the better I teach.
I use my free time to learn more about my subjects and how to best teach them, whether
it is reading Stephanie Harvey’s Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Research in
grades 3-8 over winter break or watching edTed talks instead of TV.
I have independently observed elementary, middle, and high school teachers in order to
better know where my future students have been, will be, and are going.
I compare teaching strategies with current and former classmates to better develop my
craft.
I read professional journals across the content areas in order to refine both how I teach
my subjects and how I can support my fellow teachers in their specialties.

3. I participate in two outside studies and several MOOCs concerning the humanities and
social sciences – the cross cultural lessons are particularly interesting.
I am pursuing my K-12 reading endorsement from Kent State University.
I plan to pursue my generalist in science and mathematics through the OAE tests as well
as the Master’s degree Advance Inquiry Program at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.
But an important thing about me is I am a student.
An important thing about me is that I am a reader.
I believe the more I read as both a teacher and student, the more I can model reading to
my students.
I read picture books such as Sara Pennylacer’s award-winning Sparrow Girl with an eye
for teaching. In this case, this book could be used to teach topics such as the growth of
Mao Tse-Tung’s China, the consequences of absolute power, or the fragility of local eco-
systems.
I read novels from diverse perspectives, such as Jacqueline Woodson, Sharon Draper,
Sherman Alexie, and Thanhha Lai to both understand the various culture that may be
represented in my classroom and to better help my students better understand
multicultural issues.
I stock up on young adult popular fiction from authors such as Ellen Hopkins, James
Dashner, and Suzanne Collins for both my students to read and me to read to better see
the world through young eyes.
I read and share my reading of adult nonfiction books such as David Laskin’s The Family
to model metacognition and continuous learning strategies to my students as well as to
keep up to date on content areas.
I read professional journals such as The Reading Teacher and the Journal of Adolescent &
Adult Literature to sate professional curiosity and inspire educational strategies.
But am important thing about me is that I am a reader.

4. An important thing about me is that I am a writer.
I believe that the more I write, the better I can scaffold the writing process, various forms
of writing, and various reasons for writing to my students.
For more than five years, I wrote and edited newspaper articles that included sports,
features, editorials, columns, and news for a chain of local papers. I also assigned and
edited newspaper articles as varied as listed above produced by others for that same
chain. Journalistic writing and reporting are processes I have taught both to language arts
and social studies students and to beginning teachers.
Throughout my classes, I have written and published biographical essays, short stories,
flash fiction pieces, various forms of poetry, and several reader’s theaters. All of which are
examples of work I plan on sharing with my students as inspiration.
I also write reflective journal entries after teaching in order to explain how the day went,
what happened, what I hoped to happen, and what I could have done better.
I hope to one day turn these reflective pieces into published journal entries to garner
ideas and support from educational professionals nation-wide.
I write creative stories at home and have sought publication both for a novel and for a
series of short stories. This process of writing, revising, rewriting, editing, and publishing
is a process I wish to mirror to my students in the form of writing circles.
But an important thing about me is that I am a writer.
An important thing about me is that I am multi-faceted, and I want
my students to be so as well.
I believe the more a person learns and does, the better that person is.
I have been a stay-at-home nurse and learned the value of compassion.
I have been a volunteer story-teller and learned the importance of an attention-grabber.
I have been an office worker in a customer service center and learned the immense worth
of patience.

5. I have been a paint store employee and have grown in appreciation of the wonder of
color and design.
I have been an historical interpreter and have found myself debating old topics in new
ways.
I have been a dog trainer and have considered the pluses and minuses of basic
psychological theories such as classic conditioning.
I have run a half-marathon and have learned the hard way the enduring philosophy of
taking a task step-by-step to success.
I have traveled to four continents and have observed and experienced how other cultures
view the world, themselves, and the US differently than us – a trait needed for students
to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world.
I am a teacher, a student, a reader, and a writer, but the important
thing about me is that I am multi-faceted, and I want my students to
be so as well.