Personal Narrative

My name is Brianna Linehan and I am a teacher at Dogwood Elementary School in Woodlawn,

Maryland. Dogwood Elementary School is a public school in Baltimore County. I have been

teaching at Dogwood for 7 years. At Dogwood, I have taught both 4th and 5th grade as a general

educator. My first two years at Dogwood I taught students who were in the gifted and talented

program. The last five years I have been an inclusion teacher. I teach general ed students as well

as students with IEPs and 504s. Being an inclusion teacher, I work with the special educators on

a daily basis to meet the needs of all of my students.

Before starting my teaching career at Dogwood, I attended Towson University. I was at Towson

from 2006-2010 and was enrolled in the Elementary Education program. At Towson I got my

Bachelor degree in Elementary Education. I student taught in both Baltimore City and Baltimore

County. I got to work with a range of grades from 1st to 5th. During my student teaching, I got to

work with students of different abilities and also work in different types of settings. While

attending Towson University I worked at Friends School in the after school program. At the after

school program I worked with students in grades 1st-5th. The counselors helped students with

their homework and facilitated outdoor and indoor activities. Also, during my summer breaks

during college, I worked at a summer reading camp in Pennsylvania. The summer reading camp

was in T/E school district and I was a teachers assistant. I worked with small groups and worked

one on one with the students to improve their reading skills.

Within teaching there are always new strategies and concepts to learn. In my 7 years, I feel like

there is so much I learned from coworkers, workshops, and courses. I know that as I continue

forward in my teaching career, I will continue to expand my learning and understanding. My

own personal goals are to work in a primary class, work in a different school to get a new
experience, take more math courses to have the option of working in a middle or high school,

and to continue to learn new strategies when working with students with special needs.