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My dream and goal is to become a Kindergarten teacher. I would ideally love to come back to my hometown to teach at the school where I worked with the kindergarten class in my child development course. I cannot wait to see where the future takes me.

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As I enter Dominican University and work on my degree in education. I reflect on the educational career I have had; I'm so thankful for all the experiences I've had and all the bright/dark moments. Everything that has happened has lead me to this very exact moment. I've truly learned what it means to be a teacher, how to be a teacher, and so much more.

As I continue through my career at Dominican, I hope to increase my already known knowledge of what it means to be a teacher/how to be a teacher; also learn new and exciting things about teaching and education. I'm excited to be taking the course and all the others to follow.

*This is Dominican University located in River Forest, IL.

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In my sophomore year of high school, I was able to take a three-level course that my high school offered called child development. In child development, we learned how kids develop, how to create a lesson plan, and then how to teach it. It was such an amazing experience, and I learned so much. On top of learning the information, we also had fieldwork; each level of the class had more fieldwork than the others. Putting myself in elementary school classrooms each day/or every week secured my dreams of becoming a teacher. After high school, I have now taught over fifteen lessons to all ranges of elementary school students.

In my senior year, my English class had to do a senior project. The topic of the project was anything that I was interested in. I decided that I would create/plan an entire day for a kindergarten class. The lessons and schedule were all created around the kindergarten class I was working on within my child development course. I planned the lessons for the day according to where the class was within the curriculum they were learning. This project took both semesters of my senior year to do. I first started by gathering information on what styles of teaching there are, how students learn, what their curriculum was, etc. to write a ten-page research paper on. In the second semester, I gained information and started creating lesson plans. For my last official in-person day of senior year, I ended my high school career by doing something I love so much. Teaching, I taught those kiddos all day, by myself on my "last" day of school. It's an experience/feeling I will never forget.

*This is a photo of me teaching the kindergarten class about counting to ten.

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As I entered High school, I still was slightly clueless if I wanted to continue my dreams of being a teacher. I had concluded that teaching wasn't really for me anymore; instead, I would become a counselor to help students because the counselors I had only made my life worse. After my freshman year of high school, I realized that I did want to continue my dream of being a teacher. That all I wanted to do was become a teacher.

However, the lust of wanting to be a teacher did affect my school life. I became depressed once again, and I started not caring about my school work. I only was daydreaming of being in college and then even being a teacher. I thought, none of this high school stuff matters. It affected my learning and my grades.

*This is a photo taken on my high school campus by our gym. I attended Kirkwood High School in St. Louis, MO.

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As I entered middle school, my childhood schoolhouse bedroom was no longer. At the age, I was able to begin working with actual kids. I started teaching Sunday school to elementary students with my friends. We planned out all of the classes and made them fun and engaging. This was the kickstart to my experience working/teaching.

Academic-wise, I was still struggling with reading/writing. I continued to see a specialist whom I have an abundance of respect for. She helped me learn how to slow my brain down. The issue we worked on was slowing my brain down. My brain was moving/working faster than my hands/eyes were. My fast-moving brain made my writing have multiple grammar mistakes, unclear/incomplete sentences. Reading wise, I was unable to retain most of the information I had just read.

Socially, all my life, I had been that kid who was overweight. I was bullied most of elementary school and even middle school. I struggled to make/finding friends or a group of people who understood who I was. In the seventh grade, I came out as gay to most of my friends, and they weren't excepting. As I entered eighth grade, I found a group of people whom I thought would help me and respect me for who I am. I was wrong. I ended up becoming depressed and had thoughts/plans of ending my own life. On top of the bullying, unhelpful friends, and a mental spiral I was having, the teachers, administration, and even counselors found ways of making my life worse. This effect on me made me question my dreams and hopes of teaching. The obsession with teaching/learning faded. I thought I didn't want to be a teacher anymore.

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As I entered elementary school, I became even more obsessed with school. I decided that I wanted to become a teacher so bad when I grew up. Throughout elementary school, I decorated my bedroom as a pretend classroom. I would create schedules and teach my students (who were just really my stuffed animals) what I had learned that day in my real class.
However, throughout elementary school, I struggled a lot with reading and math. Not being on the grade level requirements made me see a specialist to gain extra help in school. The experience has made a lasting imprint on my life. I have realized just how important/overlooked specialists are, even though going to them isn't always fun or exciting. It truly will make an impact on students' lives and change their educational careers.

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First Moments of Education/Being Educated

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First Moments of Education/Being Educated

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The start of my education career starts with preschool. In preschool, I became obsessed with the idea of school, teachers, things to learn, classroom layouts, etc. I was one of the kids that never cried or held onto their parents on their first day of school. I was the one who pushed my mother away to run into a colorful room of learning, leaving her in tears.

My Preschool teachers were individuals that were so full of kindness, joy, excitement, and really made my preschool experience enjoyable.