Why Teaching?
My journey of realizing that I wanted to be a teacher has been influenced by many different people and experiences in my life. In our Education Practicum class we created a "Bag Speech", which is a creative way to give a speech and share actual items that represent what you are talking about. Our goal was to explain to the class why we decided to go down the path of education.
I began my speech talking about my family. Neither of my parents went to college. I frequently get a surprised reaction when I tell close friends this fact. However, even though they did not go to college they made it a goal to send both me and my older brothers to college. I am amazed by my parents everyday seeing what they have accomplished in their lives: raising three successful and intelligent children, traveling the world, doing good for the community, and my dad even wrote a book, The Ultimate Prescription: Harnessing the Mind-Body Connection to Relieve Depression. Both of my parents are the reason that I continually push myself to be a better person and show them that I am so grateful of the life they have provided for me. Also, since my brothers are four and seven years older than me I always looked up to them. I learned what not to do and what to do. I saw the goals they accomplished and always pushed myself to strive to be as good as them. They set a high bar and continue to as our lives progress.
Throughout middle school I went through a phase, which I classify as my "Mean Girls Stage". My best friend since Kindergarten was a very big part of my life growing up. We would pretend we were twins and we actually felt like sisters. However, as we got older she became the popular girl and I was her sidekick. We gathered up some other girls and named ourselves the “six chix”. We were pretty similar to the girls in Mean Girls. Looking back on it now I would say we bullied other girls by leaving them out of activities, talking behind their back, etc. I have learned a lot from this stage and I pull on this experience and the way I acted many times when talking to middle school girls about their actions. It is a major way that I can relate to my students and one of the main reasons why I focus on middle school students. I want to mentor them and tell them about the consequences that I had to deal with many years after I left the group of girls and the identity behind.
The turning point and first time I realized I wanted to be a teacher was when I was a freshman in high school. I was in the Honors Geometry Math class. However, I was not doing well on many assignments and tests. One day my teacher pulled me aside after class and asked me why I was "faking being dumb". I answered defensively and denied ever pretending to be stupid. Even though I defended myself those words resonated with me and have continued to stick with me throughout my life. I quickly changed my ways and went on to become one of the best math students in my school and winning the Math award at the end of my Senior year. Every time I stepped into the math classroom I felt confident. Math class was where I could joke around and be myself but I could continue to excel in my subject area. I am now a Math major at Hamilton College and I want to give students that opportunity to get lost in the numbers and find their identity.
My first teaching experience was with Breakthrough Collaborative Sacramento, which was one of the hardest things I have done. I taught at Breakthrough two summers the first was when I was 16 years old and then the second was when I was 18 years old. Each day at Breakthrough lasted from 7am-10pm. I made daily lesson plans and taught not only a core subject but also an elective, study skills course, and high school prep class. Breakthrough taught me what it meant to be a teacher. The long days and the never-ending surprising moments were tiring, but I came out of each summer loving teaching even more. This feeling proved to me that I had a passion for teaching and that was not going to leave no matter how hard it is. Also, one of my students my first summer changed my life. She taught me what it is like to fight through pain and hardship in your life. She is the strongest person I have ever known.
A big part of what I believe is continually challenging myself, which is the reason I came across the country for college. While it is difficult to be away from my family, I have learned the meaning of independence.
The last part of my journey of knowing exactly what I wanted to teach and where happened during Summer 2012 in Boston. Before this past summer people would always ask me what I was going to do after school. Obviously I knew I wanted to go into teaching but I always responded that I would teach in a charter school. I said this without even knowing much about charter schools. Working at Boston Collegiate Charter School was an amazing experience. I saw a school that was successful and well run. BCCS was where a lot of my teaching philosophy came to life.
