Mr Pettit Reflection

The pathway of teaching revealed itself to me in high school, but that was not the aisle I want to go down at the time. At Clark High School, there is a magnet program known as Teacher Education Academy at Clark High School (T.E.A.C.H.), but I was not in this specific magnet program since I had no plan of becoming a teacher. The magnet program I was in at Clark High School was Academy of Math, Science, and Applied Technology (A.M.S.A.T.), and despite there being a mathematic course within the program and me wanting to become a math teacher presently, I was in the science lane. My previous ambition was to become a scientist that would aid finding a cure for cancer and make a change in the world. Despite seeking the science side of things, I have always been good at math and I had my wonderful high school math teachers Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Arquette to thank for that.

I’ve always aspired to be a teacher. Growing up I wasn’t the smartest kid, and honestly my teachers weren’t very much help with that. Truly, as a struggling student I felt that when I had a bad teacher, there was no chance for me. So ever since I was young, I wanted to grow up to be that change, I didn’t want any struggling student to feel like I did.

The career I chose is a secondary education teacher. More commonly referred to as a highschool teacher. A highschool teacher teaches grades 9th-12th and generally focuses in one subject area. High school teachers help prepare students for life after graduation. They teach academic lessons and various skills that students will need to attend college and to enter the job market (“U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics”). I chose this career because I want to be able to make a difference in young people’s lives and help shape them into good people. “I know that I have a huge impact on my students not just now, but for the rest of their lives,” says Linda Shelly, a high school math teacher in Glendale, arizona. “Seeing them rise to the challenge gives me great pride.” (“Teaching For a Living: Career Outlook”).

Teaching is a very important field when considering what to do for the rest of one’s life. The world will always need teachers to teach our children what they need to know. What would be the better option, teaching high school or elementary school? This proposes an interesting question that can only be answered by the individual willing to teach. By comparing high school and elementary school, and delving into three different areas, such as: training, classroom environment, and student behavior, a wise career choice can be made.

My most challenging professional experience was serving as a math teacher at La Granja (a rural school) in Hernandarias, Paraguay. When offered the position by Jim Luster, I was quite excited but under-confident. I had good reason to be too… I was lacking education and had no formal training in instructional practices. However, math was my favorite subject and I had done very well in it. I also was strongly encouraged by my father, so I accepted the position—and I’m glad I did.

For me, the decision to become a teacher is more of a way of life than a career. I have always loved school, practicing at being school marm from a young age, and voraciously devouring every shred of education offered me in my career as a student. If it were possible, I would be a student for the rest of my life. And then I still would not have learned enough. As a teacher, I hope to instill this appetite for knowledge in secondary students. They are, after all, the future leaders of the world, and what better place to expand the minds of the generations to come than here in Appalachia where education programs, especially the sciences, which I plan to teach, are poorly funded and children’s dreams

“Why don’t you just stick to the plan? Finish up your Masters in Education and then we’ll find you a nice job in the parochial school system.”

I’ve always known that I was meant to become a teacher. In the fifth grade yearbook, each child claimed what they wanted to be, although most of these will change with time. Every little girl guessed that they would be a professional dancer, a princess, and other mystical job titles. The space beneath my smiling face read “kindergarten teacher”.

In elementary school, we were all asked a question. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I have always known my answer to that question. I want to be a teacher. The question in the back of my mind, was what kind of teacher. Through my life I’ve met many different teachers, and have had many different experiences, that have helped me find an answer to that question. If not for all of these people and experiences, I don’t know where I would be.

Good morning, Class of 2020. First and foremost, I’d like to congratulate all of you on a successful and memorable middle school career. To what can we attribute our success, and how can we define it? Yes, our clubs, sports teams, and music ensembles achieved phenomenal rankings, and our students perform exceptionally. However, Robert Muller once wrote: “What the world needs most is openness: Open hearts, open doors, open eyes, open minds, open ears, open souls”.

Working with Mr. Clapp’s 6th grade classes has opened my eyes to the real world of teaching. I started out with some setbacks and learned from them. Then, I went into a stream of comfort and success

Becoming a high school teacher had always been the goal. As a young child and growing up with a multitude of siblings, children were my life. The aspiration stemmed from a desire to teach the next generation, to be a leader for the mind and guide them onto the next phase of their lives. I saw my favorite teachers do it with the kind of patience and discipline that only a teacher could have and after job shadowing Scott Hatfield, the social studies and current events teacher at Summit Academy North Muddle School, I realized that I am not fit for that lifestyle like I thought.

I have a confession: I only learned one thing from you. It’s not what you think of course, it’s far worse. You taught me of course, but not the lessons you were supposed to. You taught me to doubt myself, to be ashamed of my knowledge, to hide my gifts and talents, and to sit silent even though I had plenty to say.

This week I observed how key the idea of consistency is. At the beginning of the week my tutee struggled to read a particular book that was just out of his reading level. Thus, we spent the rest of our time together breaking down each sentence together and repeated each page over and over again until he read through the page error free. Originally this struggle created a sense of discouragement in my tutee, but as he decreased the number of errors this allowed for the sense of discouragement to dissipate. At the end of our time together on Tuesday my tutee could read through the difficult book with very few errors. Additionally, I told my tutee that I wanted him to bring back this same book to our next tutoring session. My tutee didn’t really

I have always had a passion for mathematics. Outside of school, I did sudokus, measured my entire house, made graphs, and even created my own problems to explore mathematics. I would do all of my work, including tests, without a calculator just to challenge myself and do more math. As the concepts increased in difficulty, the subject became even more fun for me. The dedication and creativity required in advanced mathematics have only empowered my enthusiasm for mathematics. The problem-solving within mathematics and the love I had for the subject inspired me to become a teacher.