Kathy L. Sirois
Secondary Methods I
Timothy Doak
Teaching Biography
9/20/2005
A Handful of Teachers makes a huge Difference
I cringe every time someone asks me what I’m going to school for. When I tell them that I want to be a High School Math teacher ninety percent of the time they get this ghostly white facial expression and their eyes dim back to their high school experience. They then ask why do you want to do that, math is so boring and you should be an engineer instead and make more money. I find it amusing sometimes but most of the time I think to myself, that is why I want to teach math. I want to tell the person, you’re the reason why I want to teach math. I want to broaden students’ ideas and feelings about math. I want to show them the possibilities that mathematics can give them unlike the dislike that they have acquired.
I
was born and raised in
It wasn’t until Junior high that I really stood out as the math nerd. As the teacher would walk around the Algebra I Class helping students, I would finish all the problems and help someone when she was busy. That teacher was one of my favorites. In Algebra II, she let me teach a section of a couple chapters. I think she did that so I wouldn’t lose interest. It’s funny how your favorite teachers are usually the ones who assigned the most homework.
I had a teacher in Sophomore English that was incredible. He was very “big” on respect. He expected the best of you and the way he conducted himself made the student want to go home and do his homework assignment first. He let the students be themselves yet inspired them to think of the future. He along with the math teacher, were very active in the school. They would go to sporting events along with holding positions as class advisors etc.
These two teachers’ classrooms were filled with interesting ideas on posters and bulletin boards, so even when you would daze out you were cognitively learning, whether you meant to or not. I think the reason that these people stick out to me as great teachers is not that they were very affluent in their subject but with their students, they took time to know you. Every so often when my math teacher saw that we were all stressed out, we would put our desks in a circle and talk about life and ourselves. I believe that these discussions built trust in our “classroom community” and we understood and were more tolerate of each others ideas and opinions. Now don’t get me wrong, I love math and teaching would be remarkable but High school is not just about the subjects the teachers teach. High School is where kids find themselves. I want to be a teacher because I want help the students find their paths like my teachers helped me find mine.