Hello, my name is Tayla Frizell and I am from Belzoni, Mississippi.  I am currently a sophomore at Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU) in Itta Bena, Mississippi pursing a Bachelors Degree in Mathematics and a Bachelors Degree in Mathematics Education. My passion to teach is driven by my mother who is also an educator. She is my motivation to become a teacher and improve the educational system. Standing in front of a classroom full of young and impressionable minds, it is not merely “a want” it feels as if teaching is what I was born to do. As an educator, I will have the opportunity to lead, teach, and inspire my students. I want my students to believe that they can achieve anything as long as they put forth their best effort. 

My academic accomplishments at Humphreys County High allowed me to be awarded a full academic scholarship to MVSU.  In order to enhance my education I applied to numerous internships. I was accepted into the Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) 2014 Research for Undergraduates Program where the Principal Investigator is Dr. Linda Bailey Hayden. “The goal of CERSER is to develop and implement innovative and relevant education and research collaborations focused on ice sheet, coastal, ocean and marine research.”  While at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) I have grown professionally. I have become accustomed to working with the Macintosh Operating System, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Adobe Photoshop. The Adobe Photoshop application allowed pictures to be manipulated while Adobe Dreamweaver made website development easier.

Under the leadership of Dr. Darnell Johnson and Dr. Ervin Howard, our team has researched ways of Enhancing Parental Involvement in North Carolina Common Core State Standards (NC-CCSS) for K-2 Mathematics. This research was designed to develop training sessions for parents and guardians of K-2 students attending P. W. Moore Elementary School to enhance mathematics skills in hopes of increasing achievement levels in their mathematics courses.   The training session taught the parents and guardians how to be involved with their child’s education in the comfort of their own homes as well as being involved in the classroom. While preparing for the training session our team did workshops with the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) Middle School Program. These workshops helped prepare us how to adapt to the needs of others instead of following a strict schedule. Within the workshop we had to engage the children with activities that focused on the NC-CCSS curriculum. The activities I prepared focused on ratios and proportions. Along with those activities we guided the children while they assembled the NXT Robotics component. The robots were used to execute an obstacle course.  

 After completing my undergraduate degrees at MVSU, I plan to continue my education by pursuing a Master’s Degree in Mathematics Education. While pursuing my Master’s Degree I plan on incorporating computer science classes as a supplement in order to broaden my skills as a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics teacher.