Chris Wasnetsky Field I Self-Analysis Why I Became a Teacher Throughout my four years in high school, I always helped fellow

classmates with their Mathematics homework. Mathematics (along with Physics and Chemistry) was my strongest subject by far. I attended a smaller high school (~360 students 9-12), so I knew almost every student that attended and definitely every student in my grade. As a result, those students knew I was good in Mathematics and often came to me for help. Whether the intentions of these students were noble or not (wanted help for the sake of learning or wanted help just to get higher grades and look more appealing to universities), I really enjoyed giving help to students and gained a sense of self-satisfaction when I did so. When I first entered college, I wasnt exactly sure what type I job I had wanted to pursue. I decided to major in Mathematics and minor in Chemistry to help keep my options open (my two strongest subjects in high school). Being a teacher had always been in the back of my head, but I didnt believe I would be a good teacher. I never felt comfortable being in front of a group of people in high school, I hated it. In college, it took me five (5) tries to pass my public speaking class due to high anxiety. The final grade I received for the class was an A, but that just shows my mindset coming out of college. At that time, I was pursuing other career options. During my studies at the University of Scranton (where I attended undergrad), I took a cognate course for my major labeled Computer Science 141. The course was an introductory Java programming language course. At the time the course was my favorite non-major course. By the time I ended my college career, my favorite non-major course was Introduction to Logic,

a philosophy course. I really fell in love with programming after taking that course but after the course ended, I never really went back to it until after I graduated. When searching for jobs, I noticed programming came up numerous times when searching for Mathematics and as a result I decided to focus more on programming. I spent the entire summer after graduating self-studying Java and started applying for jobs late in the year. The results were unsatisfactory. Most entry level jobs required 1-3 years of experience, presumably from internships. Even though they included Mathematics in the job description, they wouldnt look at me because I didnt even have a minor in the subject area. I eventually gave up after a few months of searching with no results and decided to pursue teaching. By the end of my college career, I became more comfortable talking in front of groups of people slowly but surely. It is at the point where I am not bothered by it at all. I wouldnt say Im comfortable in front of a group of people, but the feeling is not nearly as bad as it was when I first started college. Another factor in my decision was my current job. There is absolutely no intellectual stimulating aspect at my job at all, none. That is a major concern for me. I want a job that is intellectually stimulating, makes me think. Mindlessly working with food is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. Furthermore, working at a close-to-minimum wage job attracts workers with very little work ethic. I could spend 5 pages just ranting about how frustrating it is to be the only person working at my job with an actual work ethic. It really does take its toll on me and after 7 years is really starting to irk me. I finally decided to pursue teaching this past summer. At first I was hesitant because of the money involved, but in the end having a job I really enjoy with a little extra student loan debt was better than staying at my current job. I wasnt having any luck finding a new job with just my undergraduate degree. That is a long-winded explanation of why I decided upon teaching as a

career choice. I want to emphasize that my original goal wasnt to have teaching as a fall back option for a career. I didnt pursue teaching at first because of my fear of getting in front of a group of people. The fear was so bad that I did not even think about pursuing teaching originally. I enjoyed participating in every class that I could and was generally a good student. I never acted out in class, never talked back to teachers, etc. As a result, I formed good relationships with my teachers. I never talked with my teachers as long as I have with some college professors because of time restraints, but I imagine if given the time I could have. Several of them suggested that I become a teacher based on how I helped fellow students out with material. As I mentioned earlier, I still felt uncomfortable standing in front of groups of people at this time, so I never seriously considered teaching back then. Patience is one of my most noteworthy skills and I think this is crucial to becoming a teacher. Teachers know the subject material so much better than students. An impatient teacher would quickly become overcome with frustration, especially with those students who require a little more extra time to fully grasp what is being taught to them. I think that being a former cross-country/track athlete and current runner helps. Cross-country is not a skill sport, it is necessary to build a long, slow aerobic base before you start to see improvements. Runners have to deal with long, continuous pain day after day for over an hour at a time. I think this translates well to teaching, except for the pain part of course. I get a great sense of satisfaction when I complete math problems, even to this day. I love how you can mathematically translate a word problem into arbitrary symbols, manipulate those symbols, and arrive at an answer to the original problem. I have great confidence of what I will be teaching in my subject areas and that is important for students to see in a teacher. Furthermore, Im aware of multiple techniques for solving problems, some of which may be

useful to students who dont prefer the original way taught. Its important to show students that there isnt just one way to approach problems. Overall, I feel comfortable in front of groups of people currently, so I think teaching will suit me well. I love the subject material and dont ever see myself becoming bored teaching it to students. I think that is important for a teacher as well. Students are going to become disengaged in the lesson if the teacher isnt engaged with the subject material. I deal with the subject material on a regular basis, I enjoy keeping up with the material in my spare time just for the sake of it. I hope my expertise in my subject areas will translate to my students and hope they will learn something from me.