Since I was a little girl, I have always been interested in helping people. Because of that desire, I always told people that when I grew up I would be either something in healthcare or a teacher. Although, I settled on a career in healthcare early on, I usually played games that involved teaching others. I also always found myself helping my friends in school. I used to even give my friends homework to do over the summer. My mother quickly put an end to that in order that I still had friends. So I went to college determined on becoming a physician, instead a teacher was developing within me. My experiences in college and since then have prepared me for a career in education. I have been most impacted by motivation, personal experience, and my individual goals for the future.
It is necessary for me to explain some things about myself in order for my motivation to be better understood. I am a person who loves God and who loves people. My love of God stirs in me a desire to help people to reach their fullest potential. There is a verse in the bible (2 Timothy 2:2, NASB) that best explains my philosophy of life and my philosophy of education. “The things you have heard in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who are able to teach others also.” For me this verse means first that people have invested their lives into me. I appreciate mentors, teachers, colleagues, and ministers who have invested time and energy into me. I have grown tremendously as a person and have overcome many adversities in life. In addition, I love to read and learn new things. I am definitely a life long learner. Next, because of how people have invested in me, I want to invest in others. I want to teach others about God, about the world and my love of Mathematics. I want people to be able to overcome their struggles and to learn things that are difficult for them. I want people to be challenged and to not just get by in school or in life. I want to motivate others to be life long learners like me. Lastly, I want them to inspire others to learn. Whether we are teachers, parents or in other fields, we are all teaching people new things. I want to inspire others to have the self-efficacy in what they know so that they are confident to teach others. This motivation has inspired me to want to move this desire into a profession.
The next thing that has shaped my desire is my personal experience. It began with my play teaching and helping of friends as a child. This continued when I attended university. I was often helping classmates with schoolwork. I was involved in a campus ministry organization. I began teaching small groups and seminars through this ministry. My junior and senior year in college, I became a Calculus Teaching Assistant. I loved this experience, because I loved helping the students learn when they were confused. Some students I encouraged to take courses that were more appropriate to their skill level. Up until college, I had always had a great fear of public speaking. This is probably why I had never considered becoming a teacher. I took some speech classes to help me to overcome that fear. The speech class helped a little but mostly my experience in the campus ministry and my experience as a teaching assistant helped me to overcome this great fear of public speaking. Yet in college, I was still determined to become a physician. Late in my junior year in college, I was studying for the medical school admissions test and decided that I did not want to be a physician. I decided to go into full time ministry. After college, I went away to work for a Christian ministry. There was a rigorous application process and emotionally I did not survive. I was asked to go home. I found myself as a college graduate with no idea of what I would be doing professionally. Eventually, I ended up working at a local laboratory. Even though I hated many things about this job, the one thing that I really enjoyed was training new employees. I became a member of the training committee and served as my department trainer. Also during this time, I worked at a few business colleges as a teacher to Medical Assistants. I loved teaching students. Also during this time, I was very active in leading ministries to women and youth. I also helped to home school several students. My laboratory position developed into a position at the hospital. I designed my new position which is a position for a person who only likes to work with people part of the time. Much of my time is spent isolated in my office or taking to people on the phone. This position quickly taught me that I needed to be involved directly with people. In the last few years, I learned about a program that was designed to give people with Math and/or Science degrees a teaching degree in the year. The first year, I let my fears keep me from applying. The next year, I did apply and I was accepted. This year long program taught me that in many ways I have always been a teacher. I have had a teaching license for two years.
After completing this program, my goal has been to be a high school or middle school Math or Life Science teacher. I would prefer to be a Math teacher. I want to be a teacher who challenges their students. I think most people find math difficult. Because of that, they develop an attitude that they cannot understand it. I want to work with my students to understand what they are thinking about a problem and help them to design a method of understanding the problem. I want my students to experience success and to not just simply pass their classes. I also think I would one day like to become a guidance counselor to help students to overcome their adversities and to design a plan for after graduation. I also would really enjoy becoming a foster parent or an adoptive parent. I know that these children may have diverse abilities or come from a different culture. I need to be equipped to parent these children.
Because of my personal motivation, my life experiences, and my individual goals for the future, I am very grateful that I have decided to take this course in order to understand students with diverse abilities. This course has shown me how when I felt different in the classroom or in life, I became overcome by fear and insecurities. These fears and insecurities kept me from developing my potential socially, academically and professionally. I want to understand all the students in my classroom. This course has exposed me to many ways that individuals learn and resources for helping them. I believe that this class has equipped me to become a better educator and a member of society. It has shown me as a teacher that I need to understand the culture and diverse abilities of my students. I believe that through this course I am better equipped to understand those that I encounter in my everyday life and in my future profession as a teacher.
