My “Professional Self”
Ideally, I want to become a successful and impactful high school English teacher who creates a space for students to grow and learn new skills for their futures. The main component of my ideal image as a person is to be someone who is a lifelong learner that implements organization and meaning into my work. Within the three categories of my “professional self”, I find my academics to be the category that includes schooling, observations, coursework, and literature to be the main components. In the workplace, I find relationships with my mentor teacher, other teachers in the English Language Arts department, students, parents, and the environment in my classroom. My professional involvement 
goals include learning about culturally sustaining pedagogy, diversity and equity, and learning strategies to best serve and include all student populations. My main motivation to excel in these areas is my own personal responsibility that stems from a drive to ensure that I am equipped with the best tools I need to be the best educator I can be. As Pintrich (1995) explains: “students should have fairly accurate, and positive, beliefs that they can learn and master course material.” Thus, I can apply this to my own motivations within that I strive to master the teaching craft but I am reasonable within my progress towards fulfilling my ideal self. Some of the challenges that I may face include the regulations and standardized testing within education and the sometimes-overwhelming job of helping students navigate their own experiences and traumas that they bring into the classroom.
Steps to Achieve My “Professional Self”
I plan to overcome these challenges by learning as much as I can about how to create classroom cultures that place students first and to hack educational requirements to fit my students’ needs. One workplace goal I have in the category of professional involvement is to learn more about how equity and diversity can be the foundation of my teaching philosophy. Within this goal, I can learn about strategies to be equitable and include diverse authors in my course plans. I can also participate in professional development that works to provide concrete ways to bring diversity and equity into my teaching space. Both of these goals are relevant to my “professional self” and specific. Within the 
S.M.A.R.T. goal setting strategy, I can add a time-bound element that I will meet this goal before I graduate in the spring. A measurable way I can meet these goals is to attend an Equity and Diversity Educator Conference that is taking place at Ohio State in January. Furthermore, both of these goals can achievable as I have allocated a professional development opportunity that I can attend to meet my goal.
My strategies to Maintain Motivation to Achieving My Goal
Before this class, I thought I was a learner who did the work for grades and completion with some interest in general learning. From my responses in the Self-Assessment, I found that my perceptions of myself were not accurate in that I do strive to learn and have the drive to be an inquisitive learner. The changes I will make based on my responses and learning from this module are to be interested in 
learning even when I find it pointless or redundant. Additionally, within long-range goals, I need to be aware of myself, my options, the options that will best fit me, and the process (Cuseo, 2010, pg. 42). Thus, I can then become my best professional self by having a more aware disposition that gets at my ideal self to be a lifelong learner that evolves.
References
Chastain, A. (2012, May 14). SMART goals help you achieve success. Retrieved from https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/smart_goals_help_you_achieve_success.
Cuseo, Thompson, McLaughlin, & Moono. (2010). Goal Setting, Motivation, and Character. Thriving in the Community College & Beyond, 39–62.
Pintrich, P. R. (1995). Understanding Self-Regulated Learning . New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 63, 3–12.