Autobiographical Reflective Paper
Becoming a teacher has not always been a dream of mine. Teaching was always an idea that I had in the back of my head as something I wanted to do, but never thought that I would actually be able to. I was born with a speech impediment, called Apraxia of speech. Where as most people when learning how to talk, their brain would just tell their tongue, and mouth what to do to make the sounds to form words. This was not the case with me. I had to learn, along with hours with the speech pathologist, and my parents never giving up on me to help me make my tongue, and mouth memorize how to make sounds so I was able to form clear words. This was really hard for me, and I struggled with this a lot as a child. I then became very shy because everyone who did not know me could not understand me. This only got worse when I started kindergarten. I had a horrible teacher for kindergarten, who would not even try to understand me, and would just ignore me when I tried to talk to her. She told my parents that she did not know how I was doing in school because she could not understand me, and did not know how my peers could. Now as an adult this shocks me that a teacher who saw me everyday for a year would not put in the effort to try to understand or help me but other five year olds were willing. So right from the start my school experience started off negative for me.
For the rest of my schooling, for the most part, I had good teachers who would put in the effort with me to help me to eventually overcome my speech immensely. Another struggle I had that came with my speech impediment was reading, because I was not able to say words right I was also not able to sound words out right which affected my reading abilities. I really struggled with reading but I have to thank some teachers who helped me through this struggle. My grade two teacher was willing to help me with my reading and went above and beyond with it. I remember she would stay after school with me a couple days a week and sit with me until I was reading and understanding what I was reading at the level I was supposed to read at. I give her so much thanks for this because I felt like she was the first teacher I had who really cared about me and showed that she was not willing to give up on me. Another teacher who I have to give thanks to was my grade three teacher. She worked so hard for me and never made me believe that I could not do something. She not only got me to read at a grade three level but at a grade five level. She was the teacher who gave me a boost of self confidence, and I finally felt that I was smart. I then went on in my elementary with good grades and I graduated on the honour roll with a 95 average, and I believe this started with my grade three teacher. The last elementary teacher that I have to give credit to for making my love towards school is my grade seven teacher. I always had to work really hard in school for good grades as this was something that did not come naturally for me. My grade seven teacher was the teacher for me who made school fun. He made me want to come to school each day, Because of him I started to really enjoy school.
For highschool I went to Luther College Highschool. During my time there I was mostly stressed with all the homework along with keeping up with the reading and getting good grades. This was hard because I spent most of my nights at the dance studio. However, now that I look back on my high school experience I love Luther and would not change it for anything. I felt like I was a part of a community there, where I was involved with a lot of extra curricular activities, and all the teachers and students knew me by name. I had many great teachers at Luther but I have to give major credit to three of them. The first teacher who really made my school experience was my math teacher. She was my math teacher for three out of the four years of high school. Anyone who knows me, knows I hate math and I am very bad at it. However, she is a very good teacher and could always make me understand what was going on in math. If it was not for my math teacher I probably would not have gotten through math. I will also never forget how kind she is. In grade ten I lost my Grandpa who I was very close with, very fast. My Grandpa is my hero and I was very lost without him. I was in her math class at the time and she noticed my grades started to go down when my Grandpa first got sick. She pulled me aside one day after class and asked me if everything was okay. I told her what was going on in my life and I remember her just hugging me and always checking up on me to see how I was doing. She told me that I could always come and talk to her whenever. She was the only teacher at the time who knew what was going on in my life, and showed unconditional care towards me. Another teacher who made a great impact in my life is was my film teacher and helped me find my passion. Film was where I really shone in highschool and a part of that is because I had such a great teacher who believed in me and told me to never give up, even when sometimes I really wanted to. He opened my eyes up to a whole new world and I will always thank him for always seeing that potential in me and pushing me towards finding my passions. I took IB film because of him and how great of a teacher he is. The teacher, however, who had the biggest impact on me is my english teacher. She was my English teacher for the last three semesters in highschool. When I first found out i was gonna be in her class I was a little bit nervous for my friends who were in the grade above me told me she was really tough. However, in the first week of being in her class I instantly fell in love with her as a teacher. Since I had to work hard in school and especially at Luther, I always felt like I was not as smart as my other peers. School seemed to come so easy for them and they would always get higher marks than me. My english teacher made me believe that I was just as smart as all the other kids and that my potential just wasn’t shown in marks or how smart I was. My parents always told me how smart I was and that I could do anything I wanted to do, but my english teacher was finally the person who made me believe that. She never gave up on me and made me feel like the smartest person in the room when she talked to me. She is by far my favorite teacher, and has left her mark on me. I have probably remembered more things that she had taught me in her class than all of my other teachers combined. Not only is she an amazing teacher who goes above and beyond with her students, but she is probably the nicest and most lovely person I have ever met. I wish that everyone could have a teacher like my english teacher. From the amazing teachers that I have had in school who always believed in me and pushed me to be my best self, this is how I have found my love for teaching.
In grade 12, I got a job at the YMCA to teach kids in different classes. This, along with working from time to time in my mom’s Preschool has really confirmed my love for teaching. I always second guessed myself if teaching was really what I was good at, and even did a year and a half of psychology at the U of R. but teaching always seems to pull me back in. Teaching would not even seem possible for me if it was not for the teachers who made me who I am. I started my school experience off badly which made me learn what type of teacher I do not want to be and finished off school with amazing teachers who made me realize why I want to be a teacher so badly, for I want to be like them, and make other students’ school experiences as good as mine was towards the end.