My Influences
Everyone has had a teacher or mentor who has altered his or her life in some way. You never forget those types of people; they are hard to forget. There is something special about those teachers or mentors; they have a certain way with students that others just don’t possess. You look forward to going to class and hearing what crazy things your teacher has to say that day. You understand the material better because you are more motivated in that specific class than you are in all the rest. I loved those teachers and classes, and from that point on, I was inspired to be a teacher who possessed that quality.
Like all my classmates, I was indescribably nervous walking into high school for the first time. There were big kids, loud, crowded halls, and overwhelming scenes. I got through first period, orchestra, and headed to biology, lost and confused. As the bell rang, the teacher bellowed, “Well GOOD MORNING class!” I remember thinking to myself, “How can anyone have this much energy at 8:15 am (throughout the year I finally understood that he had to have that much energy to keep a group of fourteen-fifteen year old students awake at that time)?” His energy never died, and I never fell asleep. He kept class interesting and enjoyable with what resources he had. I absolutely fell in love with biology and decided to look into a career in biology as well.
My teacher inspired me to think deeper into the subject than I ever had before. He taught us to learn outside of the classroom since biology was all around. One Saturday morning, it struck me as to how much I truly enjoyed biology. I was helping my mom weed the garden, and I picked up this one weed and just stared at it wondering, “How can this thing that is immobile be living and performing so many tasks within its inch long roots?” It still amazes me how things like that occur; how everything is related in one way or another, and how everything needs something. I was so motivated from that point on, and I really wanted to prove to my teacher that this was the subject for me. At the end of the year, every biology class took the regents test, a state test, to pass the course. Our scores are usually mailed to us along with our reports in the summer but I got a call one day from my biology teacher, “Hey Crystal! I just wanted to personally let you know that you scored a 98 on the biology regents, which was the highest in the school!” I was ecstatic but I knew I earned the grade because I really understood the material.
My teacher inspired me to try and influence others in this way. I want to be those teachers that students like me are writing about; the ones they remember forever.
I knew I was good at math when I was placed in the honors math program in seventh grade. Math always came easy to me, but so did pretty much every subject I took. It wasn’t hard to pay attention in class, do homework, or study. Growing up, I loved to learn. I met my first real challenge when I took AP Biology my senior year of high school. The genetics section killed me and I just couldn’t grasp the concept of DNA/RNA reproduction. It was that and other topics I learned in biology that turned me off to wanting to continue biology in college. I didn’t like the indefinite answers in biology. A problem, x, could be caused because of y, but it could also have to do with the influence of r,s,t, or many other outside factors that one doesn’t naturally think about. This is when I decided that I loved math and the challenges that it brought because it was definite and understandable. At that time, I was taking BC Calculus (calculus I and II) with my favorite math teacher in the school, Mrs. Fallon. She made calculus easy to learn, enjoyable, and was patient when we didn’t understand a topic. I still clearly remember our test on integration, 2 pages of it! She wrote the largest +C on the board before handing out the test and reminded us that for every +C we forgot when integrating indefinite integrals we would lose a point because every year she always had a student who forgot the +C. Well my twin sister was that student to forget the +C even with it written on the board! I will never let her live that down.
Math isn’t as easy for many people as it was for me; I don’t know why I simply understood it, I just did. In teaching, I believe, in teaching math, my biggest challenge will be teaching students that don’t think or learn like me. I am willing to put in the extra time in researching how to teach a topic multiple ways, but am afraid that this still won’t be enough in some cases. I am hoping that with time and experience, I will be able to teach a topic multiple ways with ease and be able to get through to a majority of my students. I look forward to the challenges teaching will bring and also the day when I know I have gotten through to my students. The most rewarding feeling, I believe, will come when my students are successful.
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