I always thought I was born predestined to spend my life in a laboratory. Whether it be stooped over a chunk of rock, removing fossilized bones with a dental drill, or hunched over a microscope watching amoebas swim across the slide, I was convinced that I belonged in a white lab coat with coke-bottle glasses, pocket protector, and a ponytail. When other little girls were playing Barbies, I was in the field behind my parents’ house, digging up what I was certain were mastodon fossils. The day those same girls were buying their first tube of lip gloss, I was pulling my first microscope out of its box. On a windy day, when other children were flying their kite, I was rigging up a make-believe storm center in the backyard. Science was in my blood, but it wasn't until eighth grade that I realized I didn't belong in a laboratory; I belonged in front of a classroom.
But Why Teach?
My eighth grade science teacher was, to me, a god among teachers. Not only was he creative, knowledgeable, and easy to relate to, but he had a genuine love for his subject matter and his craft. Many teachers I had before simply seemed to go through the motions of teaching and never really showed true interest in the subjects that they taught. Mr. Bauman ate, drank, and breathed science. It was what drove his life; it practically seeped out of his pores. I knew from the first day of school that my life would never be the same after a year in his classroom.
Not only did Mr. Bauman love what he taught, but he genuinely wanted his students to love it as well. He didn’t believe in simply lecturing from the book and weighing us down with busy work from a textbook. He had lessons and activities for every type of student: songs for the auditory listeners, a walking model of the solar system for the kinesthetic learners, videos and slideshows for the visual learners, and gripping lectures for the verbal learners. He was amazing in being able to roll several types of learning styles into one activity so that the majority of his students would be able to grasp concepts in the fewest steps. It was obvious that he wanted his students to succeed and stay engaged in the activities.
Along with an intense love for whom and what he taught, Mr. Bauman was the first to admit that he was a human being like the rest of us. There are those teachers who seem untouchable and unapproachable, who don’t quite seem to function on the same level as their students. Mr. Bauman wasn’t afraid to laugh at himself when he blanked out and forgot the names of the planets or to own up to snoring at the back of the room when he fell asleep during one of his personal slide shows. He doubled over in laughter when he singed off his eyebrows after not following his own directions on how to light a Bunsen burner. Later, after spilling hydrochloric acid on his favorite tie, he proudly hung it on the blackboard for the remainder of the year. He wasn’t above his students and was the first to admit he had made a mistake. To me, he was a new kind of teacher: the inspirational kind.
The Good News
Like Mr. Bauman, I truly have a deep love for the subject matter that I have chosen to teach. From the time I could read, I pored over my huge collection of dinosaur books. These books eventually gave way to books about astronomy, meteorology, geology, biology, and chemistry. By the time I went into high school, there were two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in my bedroom, each stacked to overflowing with dog-eared, tattered research books. All my high school electives were filled up with classes like AP Biology, Earth Science and Human Anatomy. I carry with me such a deep love for my subjects, and I want others to be able to take even a sliver of my enthusiasm and apply it to their own lives.
I am fully aware that science is often looked upon as the undesirable classes, the ones that students dread going to. I want to change that. I want science to be the class that my students can’t wait to get to, the class that they want to excel in. My passion drives my desire for others to succeed. If I can do it, I want others to be able to. I want my students to leave my classroom with their eyes opened to everything that surrounds them. I don’t want my students to simply wonder how things work in the world, I want them to know. If I can have one student look into a microscope and murmur about the amazing sight, or look at a bird wonder why its beak is shaped that specific way, I know I’ll have made a difference, no matter how minute it may be.
Not only do I want my future students to look up to me to teach them, I want to them to look to me as a mentor. Through the past five years, I have worked in many educational situations ranging from kindergarten all the way up to high school. Students at all levels have such wonderful things to attribute, but I have found that I belong in a high school. The students there are right on the cusp of adulthood and, in my opinion, need more guidance than students at any other grade level. In my experience, I realized that I relate better to high school students than those at any other age. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have the patience to teach at the elementary level, and middle school doesn't allow the depth of subject matter that high school provides. I truly enjoy working with students at this age level, and I feel that that joy, combined with my desire to see them achieve and my deep love for science, will be a great help in becoming the best teacher that I can be.
Needs Improvement
Because I have had years to focus on my subject matter, I have accumulated a vast amount of ideas for my future classes, including several binders full of lesson plans, outlines, activities, and labs. My head’s always buzzing with new ideas and I’m always on the lookout for something that I might potentially use someday. I know that someday, with even more resources at my disposal, that I will definitely need to find the ability to stay focused on what, specifically, needs to be taught. I don’t want to become so distracted by all the fun things that my students could be doing that I forget to teach them the basic principles that they will need in order to make their way in the world. I definitely want my future students to enjoy my class and to have fun while learning, but not at the expense of the lessons they truly need to learn. I know now that staying focused is something I will most certainly need to begin working on now if my teaching is going to be effective later.
In The End...
Working now to improve my classroom later is something that I need to take into account. I have such big dreams about teaching and everything I want my future students to learn. I know that I have the drive to be a good teacher, and I hope, someday, I will be not only a good teacher, but a great teacher. I’ve always
belonged in a laboratory, and a classroom is my laboratory of choice. It may not be full of dinosaur bones, microscopes, or Doppler radars, but it will be full of students whose lives I have the opportunity to change. And the greatest part about it is: no coke-bottle glasses or pocket protectors required!
But Why Teach?
My eighth grade science teacher was, to me, a god among teachers. Not only was he creative, knowledgeable, and easy to relate to, but he had a genuine love for his subject matter and his craft. Many teachers I had before simply seemed to go through the motions of teaching and never really showed true interest in the subjects that they taught. Mr. Bauman ate, drank, and breathed science. It was what drove his life; it practically seeped out of his pores. I knew from the first day of school that my life would never be the same after a year in his classroom.
Not only did Mr. Bauman love what he taught, but he genuinely wanted his students to love it as well. He didn’t believe in simply lecturing from the book and weighing us down with busy work from a textbook. He had lessons and activities for every type of student: songs for the auditory listeners, a walking model of the solar system for the kinesthetic learners, videos and slideshows for the visual learners, and gripping lectures for the verbal learners. He was amazing in being able to roll several types of learning styles into one activity so that the majority of his students would be able to grasp concepts in the fewest steps. It was obvious that he wanted his students to succeed and stay engaged in the activities.
Along with an intense love for whom and what he taught, Mr. Bauman was the first to admit that he was a human being like the rest of us. There are those teachers who seem untouchable and unapproachable, who don’t quite seem to function on the same level as their students. Mr. Bauman wasn’t afraid to laugh at himself when he blanked out and forgot the names of the planets or to own up to snoring at the back of the room when he fell asleep during one of his personal slide shows. He doubled over in laughter when he singed off his eyebrows after not following his own directions on how to light a Bunsen burner. Later, after spilling hydrochloric acid on his favorite tie, he proudly hung it on the blackboard for the remainder of the year. He wasn’t above his students and was the first to admit he had made a mistake. To me, he was a new kind of teacher: the inspirational kind.
The Good News
Like Mr. Bauman, I truly have a deep love for the subject matter that I have chosen to teach. From the time I could read, I pored over my huge collection of dinosaur books. These books eventually gave way to books about astronomy, meteorology, geology, biology, and chemistry. By the time I went into high school, there were two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in my bedroom, each stacked to overflowing with dog-eared, tattered research books. All my high school electives were filled up with classes like AP Biology, Earth Science and Human Anatomy. I carry with me such a deep love for my subjects, and I want others to be able to take even a sliver of my enthusiasm and apply it to their own lives.
I am fully aware that science is often looked upon as the undesirable classes, the ones that students dread going to. I want to change that. I want science to be the class that my students can’t wait to get to, the class that they want to excel in. My passion drives my desire for others to succeed. If I can do it, I want others to be able to. I want my students to leave my classroom with their eyes opened to everything that surrounds them. I don’t want my students to simply wonder how things work in the world, I want them to know. If I can have one student look into a microscope and murmur about the amazing sight, or look at a bird wonder why its beak is shaped that specific way, I know I’ll have made a difference, no matter how minute it may be.
Not only do I want my future students to look up to me to teach them, I want to them to look to me as a mentor. Through the past five years, I have worked in many educational situations ranging from kindergarten all the way up to high school. Students at all levels have such wonderful things to attribute, but I have found that I belong in a high school. The students there are right on the cusp of adulthood and, in my opinion, need more guidance than students at any other grade level. In my experience, I realized that I relate better to high school students than those at any other age. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have the patience to teach at the elementary level, and middle school doesn't allow the depth of subject matter that high school provides. I truly enjoy working with students at this age level, and I feel that that joy, combined with my desire to see them achieve and my deep love for science, will be a great help in becoming the best teacher that I can be.
Needs Improvement
Because I have had years to focus on my subject matter, I have accumulated a vast amount of ideas for my future classes, including several binders full of lesson plans, outlines, activities, and labs. My head’s always buzzing with new ideas and I’m always on the lookout for something that I might potentially use someday. I know that someday, with even more resources at my disposal, that I will definitely need to find the ability to stay focused on what, specifically, needs to be taught. I don’t want to become so distracted by all the fun things that my students could be doing that I forget to teach them the basic principles that they will need in order to make their way in the world. I definitely want my future students to enjoy my class and to have fun while learning, but not at the expense of the lessons they truly need to learn. I know now that staying focused is something I will most certainly need to begin working on now if my teaching is going to be effective later.
In The End...
Working now to improve my classroom later is something that I need to take into account. I have such big dreams about teaching and everything I want my future students to learn. I know that I have the drive to be a good teacher, and I hope, someday, I will be not only a good teacher, but a great teacher. I’ve always
belonged in a laboratory, and a classroom is my laboratory of choice. It may not be full of dinosaur bones, microscopes, or Doppler radars, but it will be full of students whose lives I have the opportunity to change. And the greatest part about it is: no coke-bottle glasses or pocket protectors required!