After mentoring at Chestatee Academy for the past two years, I've realized that I have a strong passion for teaching. Even though I am not going to college to become a math teacher, I know that I definitely want to become one some time later down the road. One thing I learned about teaching, however, is that teachers are very limited by how they have to teach. Also, there are a lot of other responsibilities that teachers have to deal with, such as discipline and frequent meetings. Despite all these downsides, teaching is more interesting to me now, and even though middle school is filled with pubescent odors and raging hormones, I think that is where I would like to end up as a teacher, opposed to my previous dream of becoming a college math professor. Middle school students have so much fun and excitement for learning, and I think it is the best time for a teacher to impact a student.
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Me with Mrs. Brooksher's class celebrating my
acceptance into Georgia Tech. (Source: Myself) |
I have gained a very great student teaching experience, probably much better than most student teachers get to have. This was due to having such an amazing mentor and such outstanding students. I was given a lot of freedom in the classroom, being able to grade and teach when I pleased. Because of this, I was able to do something different this year than I did last year to get the most out of my experience. This year, I tried to have a closer relationship to the students. This made teaching them more fun for me, and I was able to become a role model to them. I showed them that its cool to learn nerdy types of things whenever I would bring in my yo-yo and my Rubix cubes. Getting to know the students really made this year worth while. I plan to give them my phone number at the end of the year so that I can stay in touch with them and so that they can ask me questions about high school.
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Mrs. Brooksher and me.
(Source: Myself) |
Through the Honors Mentorship Program, I found a lifelong mentor in Mrs. Brooksher. She will probably be a future job reference for me, and I plan to visit her classroom as much as possible. The best advice I would give to future HMP students is about finding a great mentor. I was lucky with my mentor because we had already known each other and she had already knew my passion for math and learning. However, I feel like many students can find a mentor like I did. Finding a mentor that you already have some sort of relationship with helps a lot. Your mentor will have more trust in your abilities which will lead to more freedom and opportunities from your mentor. Also, once the mentorship begins, you should develop your relationship with your mentor to something that will go farther than just one or two years of high school. This will allow you to have a truly genuine mentor.
Joining the Honors Mentorship Program was one of the best decisions I made in high school. I gained a great experience and made great relationships. I'm going to miss going down to the middle school every day, but I can't wait to make surprise visits to Mrs. Brooksher's classroom in the future.
