Friday, February 17, 2012

My Favorite Teachers Reflection

Ever since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. I had amazing teachers all throughout my schooling and wanted to be just like them. The earliest I can remember seriously thinking about being a teacher was in 5th grade. I was in Mrs. Frobish's class that year and everyone loved her. She was young, pretty, and had long blond hair. I could not wait to be just like her.


My next favorite teacher was Mr. Ellison, my 7th grade Social Studies teacher. Now, I definitely was not the only student that was fond of him, again, everyone loved him. They had loved him for his sense of humor, he was young, and coached basketball. But, I had began to watch how he conducted the classroom, what activities he did and how he connected with his students. I had begun to look at things as a future teacher. Towards the end of the school year "Mr. E" announced his lifelong dream was not actually teaching, it was firefighting, and the fire department had finally offered him a job. We were all devastated. Our junior high school looked like someone had died, like our world was coming to an end, it was shocking, but at the same time I was all wrapped up in the emotions too. The Monday came when we were told to sit in the cafeteria and our new teacher would come through the doors so we could meet him or her. We all sulked into the room, sat down, still dazed that Mr. E was gone. Our other teachers gave us a little pep talk about how great our new teacher would be and eventually opened the doors to reveal who it was. I will never forget the happiness and excitement that came over all of us as Mr. E walked in that door. After multiple students ran to him for a hug, tackling him and crying with happiness he gathered himself and explained that he realized he could never impact as many lives fighting fires as he could teaching, so he was here to stay. That day has stuck with me since then. Just realizing the impact a teacher can have on so many lives amazed me and I could not wait to be just like him.


I moved on to high school and met Mr. Klokkenga. Another crowd favorite whom everyone loved. He was funny, married to another one of our teachers, and really cared for his students. I, again, studied his classroom management, how he conducted himself at school activities outside the classroom, and his pride in being our teacher. I had him as a teacher freshman and junior year, an advisory leader in our Freshman Mentoring Program for two years, and a volleyball teammate for three games in our National Honors Society Tournament senior year. I know he will always be a friend and a mentor to me and I can not wait to be just like him.


Senior year of high school I applied to be a Golden Apple Scholar. I got to choose one of my favorite teachers and write about them in one of my seven essays. This was a tough decision as I had so many choices but I ended up choosing Mr. Ellison. I was soon named a Golden Apple Scholar and attended our induction ceremony. We got programs at the ceremony and I was so surprised to read Mr. Ellison's name in a list of all of our amazing teachers whom we had been blessed to have in our lives. My graduation party was a week later and I had invited Mr. E. I was so astonished and honored to have him actually show up to my party that everything kind of went quiet when he walked in. I ran to grab that program and showed him where his name was inside of it. I could tell he was also astonished and honored to have made that list, and it was so great to spend that moment with him.


My journey towards wanting to become a teacher has transformed and grew throughout my life. Now, as I specifically focus on education in my studies at Illinois State University I am learning about new tools and ideas for my classroom. I am excited but also nervous about teaching in just a few years so I decided to complete my Independent Study this semester. I wanted to start on something I can use in my future classroom and a personal learning network sounded perfect. Therefore, I will continue to blog in the coming weeks about my learning and experience I come across in this new world of blogging and other technologies. I'm ready to get started but also wanted to reflect first so thanks for reading about my past experiences with teaching. More to come!

2 comments:

  1. Wow -- is this really your first blog post?? I look forward to reading more.

    Thank you for sharing with us.

    Jennifer

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    Replies
    1. Jennifer,

      Thank you so much for the compliment! Words like those motivate me to continue blogging. Stay tuned!

      Kayley

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