About Me

My hope as a teacher is that students who come into my classroom will have one more good and safe thing in their lives: school. I cannot adjust the flaws of the public school system, but I can work around and within them to do the best I possibly can. Through respect and care, I hope to help motivate the students towards their bright futures. While the primary job of a teacher is to educate, this cannot effectively be done if the students do not want to be in class or to learn. Thus, creating a safe and caring environment becomes part of a teacher’s job description.

My school experience was widely varied. I was very well supported in elementary school, and at this point I flourished. As time went on, though, I became less engaged and had an increasingly difficult time, especially socially. I reached a point, in my sophomore year of high school, where I felt more comfortable confiding in my teachers than any of my peers. This trend continued through the rest of high school. While I hope that my students will be able to come to me if they need, I also want to cultivate a community within my classroom, so the students will feel comfortable and safe going to each other as well. I’d like to do this through bonding activities in the classroom, as well as teaching and enforcing the importance of kindness and respect.

When I am teaching, I hope to include more than simply lecture and rote memorization. Learning should be an explorative journey for the students, guided by their own motivation and assisted by the instructor only when necessary. While there will be instances where the sit-in-your-seat-and-work method may be necessary, it should not be anywhere near the majority of class time. The tasks given to the students should promote diversity, kindness, and respect, as well as critical thinking, reasoning, and analysis.