My Teaching Journey

When I was a sophomore in high school, I knew I no longer wanted to be a veterinarian. I went to high school to hopefully get into their small animal science program to achieve that goal I had set during middle school. Not achieving it meant that I had to figure out a new game plan, and I did not know where to start. I did bounce between being a teacher and a vet for a few years as I was growing up, but never truly looked into the teaching career any further.

I had an amazing group of teachers throughout my life and relied on a few in high school to help me think about teaching. I was told that my helping others to catch up, study for an upcoming test, or teach them when they didn't understand was admirable. Teachers then told me that I should look into schools' teaching programs as I started to look at colleges.

As I started to look into the future possibilities, I was told that I would have to decide on a concentration area. My two favorite subjects at the time were history and math, as I was good at both of them. I had done a few history projects that intrigued me and made me want to learn more about certain historical areas. History was now my chosen concentration.

I graduated high school in 2018 and had hoped to go back to teach there when I got everything I needed to teach in the future. As my freshman year of college was coming to an end, my mom suggested I start substitute teaching in my hometown. In May 2019, I stepped into the teacher role and began to cover for teachers of various levels.

Since then, I have substitute taught at various levels in my hometown or a surrounding town. I gained my emergency teaching license after graduating with my bachelor's degree in history in August 2023.

The 2023-2024 school year started off with me going in as a day-to-day substitute and worked my way to becoming a long-term substitute. I was hired as a building substitute at a high school and then asked to be the long-term business teacher after someone retired. So far, it has been an interesting journey and teaching me a lot. But, that's for another day...