Aaron Blain's Professional Portfolio
My name is Aaron Blain and I am a high school history teacher and varsity swim coach. This website is a culmination of work that is part of the Michigan State University College of Education online Masters of Art in Education program. I am excited to showcase and share some of the exciting projects and papers from the various education classes that have resonated in the classroom or pool. I hope that after viewing some of my best work, you feel free to use my examples in your own sphere of influence. I hope that my sample work, reflections, and other pages of this website give you an understanding of who I am as a teacher, coach, and learner. Enjoy learning and searching!
TeachingAs a teacher, I am always looking to improve my instruction, pedagogy, and educational knowledge base in order to help my students and athletes. I am in my sixth year teaching at East Kentwood Freshman Campus. Kentwood Public Schools is home to fifty-five languages and students from a wide variety of economic and social backgrounds.
I teach United States History within a program called Global Tech 21. Global Tech is a school-within-a-school that stresses 21st Century skills, group collaboration, and project based learning. Many of the projects are taught using a cross curricular approach blending Social Studies with English Language Arts, Biology, and Math. I have shared several examples of work from the online masters program that I turned into projects or units for the Global Tech students. Feel free to check these examples out on the Coursework Examples page. |
coachingWhen my teaching day ends, my coaching day begins. I previously coached in Jenison, Michigan as a United States Swim coach and as a Age Group coach. Nonetheless, I felt the need to give back to the community in which I was raised. I was drawn back to my alma mater. I have coached the Creston High School men's swimming and diving team for the last seven years. I am in my third year coaching the women's swimming and diving team. It is a treat to be surrounded by energetic student athletes year in and year out.
"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." -- John Cotton Dana |