My Teaching Journey

 

Hello, everyone! I wanted to write this post to share a little bit about my teaching journey. For as long as I can remember, I have always loved working with kids. As a teenager, I was a counselor at summer camps, an intern for a church children’s ministry, and a piano & violin teacher. However, going into college, I did not have a lot of direction concerning what I wanted to study or what career path I wanted to take. I sifted through job possibilities and the only one that seemed both fitting and exciting was teaching. When I began to attend the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2017, I was an elementary education major. While I loved working with elementary aged kids, I quickly began to realize that I might not love teaching them. For starters, I am not the biggest fan of math or science, and I definitely couldn’t see myself teaching these subjects. Additionally, after working with kids for several years, I wasn’t sure if I had the patience to do it day in and day out with a smile on my face. That is when I began to contemplate the idea of switching to secondary education, but the thought of teaching high school was a little bit intimidating! Taking a leap of faith, I made the decision to switch to secondary. Deciding on English as my content area was an easy choice since reading and writing are two of my favorite things to do. The thought of getting to teach literature and watch students grow in their writing was something I was really drawn to.

I had decided on my major, but I still lacked conviction that this was exactly what I was supposed to be doing. In the summer of 2019, I went on a missions trip and got some needed assurance about my choice to teach secondary. Almost every day, I was volunteering at what was called a “care point,” which was a facility that functioned as a school and daycare for the younger children and an after-school center for the older children. As I expected, I loved playing games with the younger children and letting them teach me new words in their language. What I didn’t expect was that I would enjoy getting to know the older children so much. The high schoolers were curious and funny, and they were very outgoing. For hours, they would ask me questions and tell me stories. It was during those conversations that teaching at the secondary level began to seem less scary. The trip as a whole also challenged me and made me realize that I am capable of whatever I set my mind to. With this newfound confidence, I returned to the U.S. and began my first education courses in the fall of 2019. As I took my education classes and began doing field experience in a high school teacher’s classroom, I began to fall in love with teaching. I had the wonderful opportunity to tutor a student during my field experience and to teach a couple of lessons, all of which reinforced my desire to become an educator. During my special education overview class, I realized that I wanted to pursue special education as well. I firmly believe that every student deserves a quality education and I hoped to be able to better provide this by obtaining a certification in special education.

Jump forward to now, summer 2021, and I am wrapping up my final education course. In just a few weeks, I will begin my internship and graduate in December with an undergraduate degree in secondary education English and a certification in special education. I have completed all my coursework and survived college during Covid-19! Fortunately, I was able to do a total of three semesters of field experience even though one ended a bit early due to the pandemic. I have worked with grades 6 and 9-12 and can honestly say I have loved working at each grade level. Over the past two years, I have grown in my confidence as a teacher, my knowledge of my content areas, and my passion for education. While I am unsure of where I want to teach, what grade level I want to teach, and whether I want to focus on ELA or special education, I am not focused on the uncertainties as I know that, regardless of what I decide, an amazing adventure lies ahead!     

Image from https://www.teachhub.com/classroom-activities/2009/05/top-12-pioneers-in-education/