Educational Autobiography

Educational Autobiography

Formative Years

I grew up in the 80s (born in 1977) and while I am sure that era impacted me in more ways than I am even aware of, I think that it was my own personal home life that set me on my current path. My mother was much older (she was 40 when I was born) and only had a 6th grade education. My father was 19 when I was born and had his GED. They had a tumultuous relationship for obvious and private reasons. They divorced when I was seven years old and I remained with my mother. Both parents worked in manual labor type jobs—my mother cleaned houses and my father repaired mobile homes. Neither knew how to be parents. My mother was an alcoholic who, I now believe, was also bipolar, and my father was just

I was never going to be a teacher. My parents would tell you otherwise. As a child, I would spend my time playing school. I would write on my chalk board, create worksheets and homework assignments and take attendance. I would make my bedroom a replica of my safe haven. I guess I was destined to find my way into a classroom. I had also always loved to write, but I wanted to find a way to make money easily in the field so I thought journalism was the way to go. After the first semester of hardcore journalism classes, I concluded that the fast pace stressed me out too much. I worked with a career counselor to narrow down alternate fields of interest and all signs pointed to education. I took a generic introduction to education course and knew immediately that I had really come home in all senses of the

Through the certification process, candidates must compile a portfolio with various pieces of evidence related to general teaching practices and their specific content area. There are videos of whole group and small group lessons, analysis of student work samples and inclusion of artifacts of leadership, professional learning, community involvement and communication that must demonstrate consistent and continuous growth. Throughout the process, you are required to think about what you teach, how you teach and why you teach it a certain way. This constant reflection was revolutionary in my teaching methodology. I knew what metacognition meant but the act of writing it out and defending my thought processes clarified my reasoning and helped me to see patterns that needed to change. As teachers, we constantly reflect on our teaching but until it is articulated, those ideas tend to be nebulous and easily dissolve in the daily duties of our regular lives. I never would have realized the power that the word “because” has until it links a lesson to a child, standard, or