Refined Vision Statement

Education is a powerful resource. With the right person behind the reigns, it can be an unstoppable force. My education has been a rollercoaster, I’ve had my ups and downs. Luckily, there have been a few teachers along the way who have understood me and helped me channel my energy in a postive direction. Channelling my energy and my spirit has shown me the world in whole new way. As I begin my teaching I keep this in the back of my head. There are hundreds of students I see a day who have been given up on and I know their pain. As a person who has lived in those shoes and now a teacher looking at a mirror image of myself I know what to do. Never give up on a student, never say forget it. Work hard for them and understand them, and they will succeed through their education.
I have began to see these struggles a teacher faces as I sit in a classroom everyday full of students who have been thrown through the education system. Everyday I have students walk into my room and assume that they are just going to sleep or goof off the entire day. These are the ones who I need to be saved. I realize they all are motivated in different ways, but they all have one common denominator. They all beg for positive reinforcement. Attention is what they are dying for. To give this attention though, the students must have respect for me.
Without the respect between the student and the teacher, there will be no learning involved. Lastly, the teacher must find that one thing which sparks the students interest. Finding a student’s interest will be the hardest task, but once it is found a world of learning and growth will evolve. The road to success through education lies within these three steps. First the teacher must provide positive reinforcement for every student, which will in turn lead to accomplishing the second step. Gaining the students respect. Once respect is gained the teacher has open range at accomplishing many goals with each student. Finally, finding what works and doesn’t work with each student. Sparking the student’s interest will guarantee the student’s success. I hope to follow these steps this semester in hopes that it will lead my students to success, as well as myself.

I Believe Statement

Education, what are its goals? Why is it so emphasized, but yet so dysfunctional? Can it really bring peace, an end to ignorance, and even understanding of others, or does it just bring up the truths behind stereo-types and discrimination? Is there even an answer we can all agree on? For me, the answers exist in my own story, as I am sure it does for many others. As a young boy, I grew up in a small southern town, the type where everyone knows your name and business. School was never at the top of my priority list. In my eyes, school was a place to socialize and cause a little ruckus without my parents finding out. Both my parents only graduated from high school, but had done very well for themselves. That alone told me school wasn’t important. Throughout high school I was a foul mouthed jokester who was going 100 mph down a road to complete failure. Then came the second semester of my junior year where my life changed. I met a girl who straightened me out and a social studies teacher who was funnier than I was. There was no more, "Passin’ gases instead of passin’ classes" it was, "Passin classes, then gases." Although, the damage had been done, my GPA was a 2.3 and my SAT score matched the weight of a sumo wrestler. Luckily, I was accepted into a college on my charm and good looks, at least that’s what my mother told me. Surprisingly, college has been a breeze for me. My education became a lot easier once I channeled my passion and energy into it. It took the strength of my family and a few people who have shown me the beauties of education. Education has been my savior. It has made me grow as a person and become more understanding of others. All it takes is just one chance, one lesson, one teacher, one experience, and a life can be changed. Education is dysfunctional and always biased, but it is the answer to this world’s problems. It was the answer to mine, and I represented about half of all those students who have been forgotten and put on the back burner. I believe education is a tool that can build empires and tear down castle walls. I also believe education produces millions of people who have differing opinions and extremely different views, but it does produce one thing we can all agree on. It produces success, its main goal. I was the second in my father’s family to graduate high school, and I will be the first to graduate college in my entire family. I might not be the guy who everyone likes, and my views might not be widely accepted, but I have succeeded, wasn’t that the goal? I believe in education, and I believe in its power. Through it we can all succeed, maybe not together, but to one purpose and one goal. I believe.