My Path to Wanting to Become a Teacher

Some people always knew that they wanted to become a teacher, even when they were little. I on the other hand never thought I would want to become a teacher. All my cousins and aunts are teachers but i never thought I would want to become one too. When I was little I struggled in school so much that i hated being their, I hated everything about school. I struggled in almost every academic area that I was put into a special education class to help me. My special ed teachers in my elementary schools were the best teachers i ever had. I will always be thankful to them for helping me with my school work and even just being their for me if i ever needed it. They were the only teachers that I felt truly helped me succeed in school. However, when I entered high school my teachers were not the best. They knew how much i struggled but they were not helpful at all. This made my attitude towards school very negative. As much as i tried my best in school it never felt good enough, especially when my special education teacher was horrible. The teacher that was suppose to help me in school, build me up and actually want me to succeed in school was instead just constantly telling me things that i was not doing right. She never helped me with my work when i asked for help and didn't care about me, or even if i passed or passed.

Up until the end of my junior year in high school I had always thought that I wanted to be in the fashion industry. Then it finally hit me throughout that summer that I wanted to work with children. I had been babysitting a lot that summer so it finally made sense to me. I thought about helping students that struggled in school just as much as i did and i wanted to help them. I want to be like the special education teachers that i had in my elementary schools, who cared about me and helped me succeed. My senior year I did 20 hours of observation hours in a kindergarten classroom and after completing them i knew i wanted to become an elementary school teacher. I loved helping the students and working with the special education students. Now as a sophomore in college I cannot wait until I finally have my own classroom and can help all my students. I want to make my students enjoy coming to school and to be excited to learn. I hope one day I will be able to be just like my sped teachers that made me feel special and helped drive me to want to be successful in school.

My Idea of the Perfect Classroom

I cannot wait until I have my own classroom, I am hoping to teach kindergarteners. I can already picture how I would want my classroom to be, I have high expectations for myself but I understand that it dose not always happen the way you want. when I observe other teachers classroom I am able to picture what I would want to have in my classroom and what i wouldn't want. I would defiantly want my classroom to be inviting and friendly. I would have the students work hung up on the walls, so all the students can be proud of their work. Also, I would have rules hung up on the walls so that all the students know what is appropriate in the classroom. I want to be able to give students a warm and controlled atmosphere. As a teacher I would have to control the classroom with rules and class management, but also be caring and comforting to the students. If the students ever needed to talk to me they would know they could always come talk to me about anything and I would be there for them. also, within my classroom environment I would want the pace to be slow so that no one would fall behind. As a former special education student, I know how it feels to fall behind from the rest of the class.
Not only would I want to give my students the perfect atmosphere and give them a welcoming environment, but I would want my lesson to be able to work for all the students. I would try to accommodate all different types of learners. Every student learns differently and some students need certain accommodations because of their disability. Knowing that I will have special education students in my classroom, their lesson plan will be a little different from the rest of the class. Furthermore, I will try to have lessons that can get the students interested in learning and get them to have a hands on learning experience. I will try to have lessons that can be auditory, visual and kinesthetic. By accommodating to all students this will be able to benefit them in school and understand the material better. Overall, I hope when I have my own classroom someday I will be able to accommodate all the students and make them feel great about themselves while enjoying to learn!