Royals 2

I have grown up always knowing the career I wanted to go into was education. My teachers have been my biggest role models and I look up to them most. They have inspired me to go into the education field. While growing up I have built special bonds with my teachers and created relationships that have lasted throughout my educational career. In my sophomore year of high school, one of my teachers reached out to me and asked me to join the yearbook. I fell in love with this class and found my passion in photography, writing, and designing. Without her guidance, I would not have found this passion. She pushed me to join this class and I have been in Yearbook ever since. In my senior year, I was asked to be editor-in-chief. She unfortunately changed schools so she is not my advisor anymore, but without her, I would not be who I am or where I am today. My teacher was one of many that have inspired me to go into education. I want to be an elementary school teacher and be a role model for future generations.

Almost every time I mention to someone that I want to be a teacher I get the response, “You want to be a teacher? But you won’t make any money!” Teachers are underpaid, deal with bad behavior, lack of administrative and parent support, lack of funding, forced to change curriculum last minute, and the list goes on. But any career comes with its challenges. Despite these challenges, becoming a teacher is still my ultimate goal. There is so much that goes into education. I am not going into this career for the money (obviously), I want to be a teacher to make a difference in students’ lives just like my teachers did for me. By becoming a teacher, I can build bonds with my students and hopefully be a teacher they remember having and loving. My list of teachers who have made an impact on me starts in elementary school and continues up to my high school career. Teaching is such a rewarding career. You get to watch your students grow and learn, which would be such a big achievement.

With that being said, my most important leadership experience in high school was joining a class called Teaching as a Career. This class is for college credit, and along with the credit I get internship hours. Three days a week, I go to an elementary school in our district and get to observe, help, grade, and bond with students. Interning has made me realize that teaching is a perfect career for me. While interning I get to interact with students and am sort of like a paraprofessional. I walk around the classroom, offer help to students, grade papers, and watch how the teachers work with their students. I want to be a second-grade teacher after my college graduation, at the elementary school I intern in a third and second-grade classroom. I get to observe the different learning styles and how they want things done in their classroom.  On the two days that I am not at the elementary school, I am learning about the other parts of teaching like curriculum, salary, how to deal with behavior, philosophies of teaching, and more. I also learned how to assess behavior, deal with parents, administrators, and co-workers, and much more about being a first-year teacher.  Interning has been a leadership role that I have really enjoyed and so glad I took the opportunity. Taking these classes has given me the opportunity to see how classrooms are run, and learn how to grade things, and I have been able to help students. One of my favorite things about interning is I feel I am getting such a good experience early on in my career, and I am getting the prep I need to be more successful later.

I have learned so much just this school year about my future in education and how to make myself a better teacher. A lot of young teachers are really struggling with staying in education. I am learning now how to deal with teacher burnout and I am getting different skills on how to deal with things. Taking the internship has made me a better leader and helped me build confidence in education. These classes are prepping me for my future goals as an educator. Being a teacher comes with lots of challenges, but it is such a rewarding career and exactly what I want to do.

Taking this internship has furthered my education in the future by preparing me for college classes I will be taking in the future and showing me what I will be doing as an educator. I plan on majoring in elementary education and then start teaching, while teaching I want to get my master’s degree to start making more money early on in my career.  I am excited to experience the benefits of being a teacher like building relationships with my students, watching my students grow and excel, and making an impact on their lives. Being a high school student taking college-level classes is exciting and not something that everyone can do. I am glad I am taking this class now so I can be ahead of my peers in college and have a better sense of what I want out of school. Interning has inspired me to go on to college and keep working toward my goal of being an educator.