Why am I here? No, seriously...why?

At the beginning of senior year, one finds many things to pour their energies into whether that be preparing for classes, looking ahead to graduation, or even...yes, you guessed it, writing a blog post. 

If you had told me three years ago today that I would change my plan fifteen times before finally deciding to become a teacher, A TEACHER, I would have laughed. Three years ago I was on the path of a pre-med student with all of the biology and chemistry that any sane person can handle. After coming to the realization that I was on the wrong path for me, I stumbled and bumbled around for 2 semesters until I took the first Survey of British Literature course. From there, I was hooked. 

The first person that encouraged me to consider a path in teaching is Dr. Tebbetts. For the last two years, he has been a mentor, a guide, a professor, and a friend. He has pushed me and helped me develop the understanding of literature that I do. His courses have improved my writing, exposed me to literature that I would not have otherwise pursued, and helped me foster an innate drive to learn.

The second person deserving of an honorable mention is my high school radio teacher, Mr. Johnson. He is the one person that showed me that school, although a place of business and learning, can still be a fun place. Despite his class being a career/technical class, the class allowed me to foster the sense of who I am. Had it not been for this class, I would not be the loud, boisterous personality that I can sometimes be. This is one thing that has helped my teaching performance. The time I spent practicing my vocal delivery (e.g. projecting my voice, articulating well, speaking clearly) has helped my performance teaching in the classroom. So I deliver a big "thank you" to Mr. Johnson for pulling me out of my shell and allowing me to become the person I am today.

The third person on my long list of people to thank would have to be my 7th grade English teacher, 10th grade Pre-AP English teacher, and 11th grade AP English Language and Composition teacher Mrs. Sandy. She showed me that engaging literature, both fiction and non-fiction, can be exciting but also very dull. Deeper than that though, Mrs. Sandy showed me that high school can still truly be rigorous. For a handful of years, the most complex and longest paper that I had ever written in my life was the ten page paper I wrote for AP English. A ten page paper terrifies most high school students, and rightfully so. Thank you, Mrs. Sandy for showing me that there are some high school teachers who still have rigorous courses and that those teachers continue to push students to be better, do more, and think at a higher level than they did the day before.

These three individuals have shaped a lot of who I am. Two of my high school teachers are the foundations for my personal beliefs about the role of teachers everywhere. Teachers should maintain a level of humor while continuously maintaining a rigorous environment and a rigorous courses. Not all students will meet that benchmark, of course. That being said, all students have the ability to do better than they performed the day before. They will not all be on the same level, but they can all come further than where they started. Dr. Tebbetts has helped foster my love of literature, the analytical mindset that I have developed to interpret the things I read, and the good writing habits that I have developed. These things all culminate into my preparedness and mindset about the field of education and my future in education.