Pathway Teacher: Clare Elliott

Meet Clare Elliott

Clare Elliott joined SFUSD Pathway to Teaching in 2017 as a Education Specialist. Prior to joining the Pathway program, Clare worked as a paraprofessional in Nipomo, California. Clare became interested in teaching because her mom is a Speech Language Pathologist at an elementary school. She used to volunteer at her mom’s school growing up. Now, Clare is a fully credentialed Pathway graduate, teaching as a Resource Specialist at Miraloma.

The Pre-Service Preparation was intense! Everyday was packed with teaching, collaborating, learning, and trying new ideas. I have honestly never been so tired in my life. The teaching experience was invaluable and I would not have been ready to lead a class of my own without it. Every afternoon was packed with lessons on critical content areas and coaching. The classes required us all to practice every scenario and theory on each other and built the foundation for many friendships. 

Reflection is key to being an effective teacher. There are many ways to be reflective: making time for self-reflection and next steps, engaging with other teachers to resolve challenges and celebrate victories, and receiving feedback from a trusted mentor or coach on how to improve and to recognize growth in your students and yourself. Pathway to Teaching taught me how to incorporate all these methods of reflection into my teaching practice. Some of my proudest moments as a teacher occurred when I discussed the triumphs of a student with my coach (Beth Blair!) or collaborated on how to support students emotionally with Pathway teachers from other schools. Pathway to Teaching gave me a community of teachers in SFUSD that I collaborate with everyday. There are 4 Pathway teachers at my school. We lift each other up, enabling us to be better teachers for our students.