Everyone images how their life will go. In that fantasy, there are no hitches, right? Yes! But… that is not how real life works. In my career, it has not been a straight path to success with zero hitches. There have been numerous zigs and zags, but all of which led me to where I am today—and I couldn’t be more grateful!
What should I do???
Before I graduated high school, I, like many others, contemplated what I should do for a career. There were many options. While I had my own ideas of what I wanted to do, others gave me suggestions. I explicitly remember several of my teachers saying that I should go into education. Without hesitation, I would say, “no way.” I was certain that the field of education was not for me. By the end of my high school career, I was set on going to college for psychology. I thought psychology was fascinating—and still do—plus I had already taken some college level classes in psychology, so I felt like I had a good grasp on what I was getting into.
Then, there I was: living the college life and majoring in psychology. I felt like it was going good but not great. What I mean by that is by the end of my first semester, I had realized that my overall grade through all of my psych classes (including the ones I took in high school) had never went above a B or a C. In that moment, I realized that maybe psychology wasn’t the major for me. That’s when I started to do some serious self-reflection. For a while I thought about majoring in some sort of writing studies, like journalism, but it just didn’t feel like the perfect fit. Then, I started to think: Okay, I love to read and write, and I work really good with other people—oh my gosh, I would be a good teacher. I didn’t believe it at first, but I knew it in my heart. Even though deep down, I knew that this career path would suit my personality perfectly, I didn’t dive into it just yet. I reached out to one of my favorite teachers from high school and asked her several questions pertaining to her experience in education. She gave me a great bird’s eye view of the field. Then, when I went back to my hometown for break, I observed some different classrooms at my old school. The more I learned about the field from an educator’s perspective, the more I felt it would be a good fit for me. When I returned to college from break, I made the change: I was officially majoring in education. Even though there was still some uncertainty in my mind, my heart knew it was the right thing to do.
God Knows Best
Even though I changed my major during my freshman year of college, me majoring in education didn’t feel real because I couldn’t yet see it in my course list. But that all changed in my second year. I was officially on the path to becoming a teacher, and that is what it felt like during my sophomore year of college. In that year, I also made a vow to myself: That I would be a straight A student. I usually had Bs in high school with maybe an A or two in the mix, but I was never a straight A student. In some courses getting this A was easy, and in others I had to put in more effort to achieve that A. But I did it. By the end of my bachelor’s degree, I had a 4.0 GPA!
Even though I made the vow to become a straight A student, I still was nervous about my endeavors to become a teacher. I had never thought of myself as one throughout my life until college. Then, all of sudden, that was what the rest of my life looked like, and that idea scared me. So, throughout my bachelor’s degree, I constantly prayed. I prayed to God and asked Him to put roadblocks in my way if teaching was not for me or make the path easy for me if I was meant to go into to education. Needless to say, with a 4.0 GPA, He made it clear that education was where I was meant to be.
The Real Deal: Being an Actual Teacher
While I did really well in my courses, the real experience of being a teacher was kind of terrifying. I hated public speaking, so my time in my student teaching really helped me to overcome that. In addition to facing those fears, I also developed and implemented lessons for students. I learned some essential lessons as a teacher about meeting students where they are at and knowing when to back track and reteach. My experiences and my mentoring teacher gave me many new skills and insights in being a teacher.
Unfortunately, I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in the middle of the school year, and I had a difficult time landing my first teaching role. Thus, there was a gap between graduating college and landing my first teaching position. During this time frame, I worked part time and subbed a lot. Even though I learned a lot and saw a lot of different teaching styles and approaches, I was ready to be a teacher of my own classroom. Then, it happened. I landed my first teaching role at a private Christian school. I was excited and nervous for my education career to begin.
In this role, I would be teaching English Language Arts (ELA) for grades 7 through 12. Fortunately, the teacher who had been in the position before me shared all of her materials with me. While I was grateful for her resources, I felt like the teaching style wasn’t quite for me. So, I decided to take on the gauntlet of designing my own curriculum with her resources and the textbooks as a sort of guideline. My admin was supportive of my endeavors, so with their blessing I researched strategies extensively and explored other helpful places like Teachers Pay Teachers. Designing curriculum for six different courses was a lot, but it helped me to learn various strategies and the ins and outs of curriculum development quickly. I discovered I really loved developing curriculum, so I started my Teachers Pay Teachers store about halfway through my first year of teaching. Side note: I decided to call my Teachers Pay Teachers store Underneath Ink because it was (and is) mostly ELA content, and I love the implied pun of these resources will help you look underneath the ink and get a deeper meaning of text you are reading or writing. 🙂 lol. Through this TPT store and my experiences in my first year teaching, I felt some new passions start to develop.
Then, in the following summer, an unexpected opportunity opened up at a public school near me. I applied, I interviewed, and I got it. Even though I would have been happy teaching at the Christian school for another year, I felt called to teach at this public school. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I felt like that was where I needed to be. This public school is where I currently teach, and there are numerous reasons why I believe I am meant to be there. One of which was the mentoring program. The mentoring program at this school has enhanced my teaching skills ten-fold. Furthermore, this school also supports my exploration and innovation in curriculum development, and it is a passion I feed almost every day.
Pure Passion
One of the aspects that drove me to the teaching field was my passion for the written word—that’s why I chose to teach ELA. My passion for reading and writing is a love that persists to this day. Though, through my time in the classroom, a new passion has developed—one that I didn’t expect to have. I have developed passion for curriculum development. I adore exploring various educational strategies and approaches. Even more than that, I love figuring out what content/skills need to be taught and how to effectively teach it to students (especially with all the options for different tools, content, and strategies to utilize). I guess that is where my love of psychology gets a chance to shine. I get a chance to think about how students think and how I can connect them with the content/skills. I believe my colleagues notice this passion in me as well. I have had several of my colleagues tell me that when I tell them about something new I am trying in my classroom, I just light up.
In this newly developed passion of curriculum development, I can’t help but explore all avenues to nurture it. I explore innovative curriculum strategies within my own classroom, I share those resources on my Teachers Pay Teachers store (Underneath Ink), and now I am taking it to the next level. I am getting my master’s degree in Instructional Design in eLearning (set to finish in December!). Yet, I still can’t quite contain myself. That’s what has brought me here. I want to share my passion for curriculum development with you! I am excited to share my knowledge, and I hope to help you in your curriculum endeavors.
