My teaching platform has been influenced by my life history and I have decided to provide you all with a brief insight as to why I want to go into the education profession. Below you will find my autobiographical sketch. Enjoy!
As someone who has grown up in a family of educators at nearly every imaginable level, there has always been an emphasis placed on education and the advantages that one could obtain from a school environment. One could say that education is “in my blood,” although I was never dead set on becoming a professional educator from the get go. I didn’t even begin my teacher education program, ultimately, until my second year at Miami. It was certainly something that had always been on my mind, or at least hidden somewhere in my inner workings, and finally came to fruition.
I entered Miami as a biology major and wanted to go to either medical school or optometry school. That obviously hasn’t worked out, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The amount of stress and anxiety that I was feeling just in my first year of school was not healthy and I realized I wanted a career that would not put that kind of pressure on every little assignment or test for the next eight plus years. Of course, teaching has its own set of pressures and comes with many of the same science classes since I am a Life Science education major, although I didn’t get discouraged as quickly if I got a B or C on an assignment while my other pre-med friends scored an A.
Ever since I switched to a double major, life science education and sports management, my attitudes and feelings have significantly changed for the better and I am much more at ease with my schooling. Although I am taking up to twenty credit hours at times, as I currently am, I am now exposed to classes that interest me and contain practical knowledge and professors that are so unbelievably passionate about education and the students that we will be teaching in the future. That’s not to say my other professors weren’t passionate, rather their passions did not align with mine.
As I mentioned above, going into education was always embedded in me, although the whispers were certainly amplified the summer before I came to Miami. I had gone on a trip a couple hours south of my home to visit with my family in Columbus. The main priority of the trip was to tutor my cousin, who was entering his junior year at the time, for the ACT. I had done relatively well on mine and my cousin was looking to raise his score; I figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to try my best and make a few dollars along the way. The defining moment came one night late in the week when my Uncle, whose office was located next to the room we were working, came and said to me, “Hey, you’re pretty good at this whole teaching thing. If I were you, I would certainly consider going into it,” I simply laughed it off as my family just being lighthearted and engaging me in an encouraging way. He must have sensed what was soon to come because, sure enough, here I am pursuing my degree in education.
Part of my foundations and background that has pushed me into wanting to be in the school environment is the impact that I feel I can have on adolescents. Often times people will discredit teenagers and point out all of the negatives and baggage they come with, I feel the opposite. I want to be the strong, positive, male influence in their lives that can push them towards finding their calling or turning their lives around. I feel that the profession that will allow me to achieve this is teaching and, although I always had a handful of solid male figures in my life, there were still coaches and teachers that I would turn to if I had to. Far too often students feel left out or as if they have no one in their corner. As an educator I am going to try my absolute best to be that listening ear, that motivating force, and that comforting presence when there may be no one else.
I previously mentioned having coaches, no matter what the level or sport, that have been guiding influences on my life and I too wish to be a coach some day. I am a diehard football fan and I simply cannot consume the game enough; I also happen to believe it can teach some of life’s greatest lessons. As such, I would jump at an offer to be a coach at the high school level, even if it doesn’t happen to be at the school I am working. There are children and students that need to be reached in every corner of this globe and I would be blessed to be able to have an impact on just handful.
Educators come from every walk of life and I’m sure my path to where I am today isn’t totally unique in every aspect. We’ve all had major influences in our lives, whether its family, friends, teachers, coaches, etc. that pushes us in one direction or another. I have been blessed time and again to be put in situations where those influences have been able to work interdependently to provide me with all that I could ask for and more. As I go into the future workplace, which is hopefully a school, I want to bring that positivity and my particular set of experiences into another young man or woman’s life and be that beacon of light or role model they can choose to follow. In my opinion, there is nothing more selfless than dedicating your life to assisting others, there are plenty of fields that do this, and I cannot wait to do this with my own life.
As someone who has grown up in a family of educators at nearly every imaginable level, there has always been an emphasis placed on education and the advantages that one could obtain from a school environment. One could say that education is “in my blood,” although I was never dead set on becoming a professional educator from the get go. I didn’t even begin my teacher education program, ultimately, until my second year at Miami. It was certainly something that had always been on my mind, or at least hidden somewhere in my inner workings, and finally came to fruition.
I entered Miami as a biology major and wanted to go to either medical school or optometry school. That obviously hasn’t worked out, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The amount of stress and anxiety that I was feeling just in my first year of school was not healthy and I realized I wanted a career that would not put that kind of pressure on every little assignment or test for the next eight plus years. Of course, teaching has its own set of pressures and comes with many of the same science classes since I am a Life Science education major, although I didn’t get discouraged as quickly if I got a B or C on an assignment while my other pre-med friends scored an A.
Ever since I switched to a double major, life science education and sports management, my attitudes and feelings have significantly changed for the better and I am much more at ease with my schooling. Although I am taking up to twenty credit hours at times, as I currently am, I am now exposed to classes that interest me and contain practical knowledge and professors that are so unbelievably passionate about education and the students that we will be teaching in the future. That’s not to say my other professors weren’t passionate, rather their passions did not align with mine.
As I mentioned above, going into education was always embedded in me, although the whispers were certainly amplified the summer before I came to Miami. I had gone on a trip a couple hours south of my home to visit with my family in Columbus. The main priority of the trip was to tutor my cousin, who was entering his junior year at the time, for the ACT. I had done relatively well on mine and my cousin was looking to raise his score; I figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to try my best and make a few dollars along the way. The defining moment came one night late in the week when my Uncle, whose office was located next to the room we were working, came and said to me, “Hey, you’re pretty good at this whole teaching thing. If I were you, I would certainly consider going into it,” I simply laughed it off as my family just being lighthearted and engaging me in an encouraging way. He must have sensed what was soon to come because, sure enough, here I am pursuing my degree in education.
Part of my foundations and background that has pushed me into wanting to be in the school environment is the impact that I feel I can have on adolescents. Often times people will discredit teenagers and point out all of the negatives and baggage they come with, I feel the opposite. I want to be the strong, positive, male influence in their lives that can push them towards finding their calling or turning their lives around. I feel that the profession that will allow me to achieve this is teaching and, although I always had a handful of solid male figures in my life, there were still coaches and teachers that I would turn to if I had to. Far too often students feel left out or as if they have no one in their corner. As an educator I am going to try my absolute best to be that listening ear, that motivating force, and that comforting presence when there may be no one else.
I previously mentioned having coaches, no matter what the level or sport, that have been guiding influences on my life and I too wish to be a coach some day. I am a diehard football fan and I simply cannot consume the game enough; I also happen to believe it can teach some of life’s greatest lessons. As such, I would jump at an offer to be a coach at the high school level, even if it doesn’t happen to be at the school I am working. There are children and students that need to be reached in every corner of this globe and I would be blessed to be able to have an impact on just handful.
Educators come from every walk of life and I’m sure my path to where I am today isn’t totally unique in every aspect. We’ve all had major influences in our lives, whether its family, friends, teachers, coaches, etc. that pushes us in one direction or another. I have been blessed time and again to be put in situations where those influences have been able to work interdependently to provide me with all that I could ask for and more. As I go into the future workplace, which is hopefully a school, I want to bring that positivity and my particular set of experiences into another young man or woman’s life and be that beacon of light or role model they can choose to follow. In my opinion, there is nothing more selfless than dedicating your life to assisting others, there are plenty of fields that do this, and I cannot wait to do this with my own life.