Successes

Being a teacher has been one of the biggest achievements in my life. I went from a career in finance and not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, to finding something that I truly enjoy. When I go into school, I look forward to seeing my students and how they are doing. Every day that I get to go to work, I feel that that is a success.

I feel successful daily walking into my classroom. Every morning, I have the same students that come in to see me first thing, before heading to their 1^st period. I feel that that is a success in itself because not many teachers have that. I feel the best when I see that my students are going out of their way to say hi or even make small talk. That verifies that I am creating positive relationships and imprinting on these students in a good way. When I am teaching a lesson, feel the best when my students have that “ah ha” moment. Since a lot of my students are missing some of the crucial processes by the time they get into my classroom, I find that that moment is so rewarding for both the student and myself. I cannot think of a time that I do not feel my best when I am with my students in the classroom. It is just something that I look forward to every day and can a career I have been able to excel at.

In having success in my classroom, I recall a few students who entered my classroom in the beginning of the year with no motivation to learn or pass math. I remember talking with these students daily one on one, trying to help them with processes and scaffolding lessons more so to help them understand better. When I was not working with the students one on one, they would just stop working and it was like there was nothing I could do to encourage them. By talking more on a personal level with these students and understanding what their interests are and getting to know them did I find out that they liked things like videogames, basketball, football, and anime. With this information, I altered some of the upcoming lessons to incorporate their interests, current events, and real-world applications that related to them more. These students have graduated, but from time to time, they email me and come into my classroom to visit. They are in community college understanding more of what they do in their math course because of some of the things they learned while in my class.

Though I have had many success stories and experiences in my classroom, prior to joining an MAT program there were not as many. My MAT program has altered my way of thinking to having a more Growth Mindset and creating a more culturally relevant classroom. Relating to students, engaging them in more hands-on STEM type activities, and focusing on teaching to the individual and not the universal students has really made a difference in student performance and environment of my classroom. I can feel the difference in the classroom vibes when I walk in in the morning. I can see better student teacher relationships developing and my students really come in wanting to work for me. They come in ready to learn and I think that has been the biggest success of all.