Education

My first job in education was as a paraprofessional. I worked each day with an 8-year-old girl with Down Syndrome, as well as with 5 other students with "severe and profound" disabilities. This job challenged many of my previous assumptions about education and addressed many issues I had previously had the luxury of ignoring. I am now in my 2nd year of "official" teaching. My content area is science, but the truth is that I enjoy teaching kids and science was the area I was endorsable in. If I could invent my own class to teach, it would probably in environmental ethics. I have always loved learning, and I need to feel as though I am making a difference…"being the change I wish to see in the world", to borrow a quote from Gandhi. Teaching allows me to do both. I consider myself a student of many things and an expert on none. My undergrad. degree was very interdisciplinary, and while specialization seems to be what pays, I still hold that there is great value in being able to connect subjects, people, and ideas. This has led me to teach science from a variety of subjects and perspectives. Being that I have very general knowledge in many subjects, my knowledge in my content area has had to grow very quickly by necessity, as I am now the supposed authority on Zoology, Genetics, Botany, Biology, and Critical Skills. I, myself, have relied on other authorities, usually the text, to impart knowledge in all of these areas, but teaching reminds me daily that I still know very little compared to the vast curiosities of my students.