I always think a teacher’s most fascinating story is how he/she decided to become a teacher in the first place. Some seem to have been born to teach; they’ve know since kindergarten they wanted to be a teacher. Others, it seems, fell into the profession. I guess you could categorize me in the latter group.
I attended my freshman and sophomore years of college out of state. I wanted to be away from home more then I wanted to learn anything. The opportunity to work on the school’s video broadcast team arose, and I jumped on it. By the end of freshman year, I was a bonafide Mass Comm major. For some freak reason, I decided to work at a summer camp the summer after my freshman year. To this day, I don’t know what possessed me to be a camp counselor, but 2 wonderful things hapened as a result: 1 — I met my husband and 2 — I fell in love with children.
A year and a half into college, I transferred to a school back home and declared an education major. Originally, I wanted to teach high school English, but one internship in Senior English made me realize that was not for me. Some people say middle school teachers have a special calling. I say high school teachers are the ones who get the calling. I was asked to prom by 3 of my students. I had to get out.
I spent my remaining internships in middle schools where I belonged. My experiences have been nothing but positive, and I have developed relationships with some amazing teachers. When I graduated in December, I began looking for teaching jobs. I spent the first few months as a college graduate substitute teaching, where I learned some valuable lessons about how to treat my subs and how I expect my classes to run.
I attended a job fair for Huge School District since I lived in the area and knew it was a district that could meet my needs. Unfortunately, 10,000 other prospective teachers felt the same way. When I approached my #2 school to give the principal my resume, she asked me to come back after the job fair for an interview. Just like that. I mean, she hadn’t even read my resume yet! At our interview, we discussed everything from my philosophy of education to our favorite area restaurants. We were actually asked to leave so the custodian staff could close up. Needless to say, the principal called me a few weeks later and offered me a job teaching 7th grade Language Arts.
I hear a lot of horror stories about administrations that treat teachers like crap or fail to support their teachers, but I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot with my school. Both my principal and the AP I will report to (there are 7 total — it’s a huge school) have been extremely friendly and eager to help this fledgling teacher. I feel blessed and eager to embark on my new journey.
