Autobiographical Essay

Alyssa R. Hixon

Education 120- Foundations of Education

Spring 2018
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Autobiographical Essay

Autobiographical Essay

Educational Background

I attended a very small number of schools compared to a lot of people. I went to

a school called John Dooley in Henderson, Nevada. I was only there long enough to

finish my Kindergarten year, and I don't remember anything about it. The summer after

that school year my family moved to Boise, Idaho into a little apartment for almost a

year. We then proceeded to Nampa, where I started first grade at Willow Creek

Elementary that following school year. I enjoyed my years in elementary school. They

were fun and full of great memories. From there I went to Lone Star Middle School,

which had only been open for a year before I started going there. Middle school was a

crucial time for me growing up. It helped develop more of a sense of who I wanted to

be. When I finally reached High School, I went to Nampa Senior High School. At this

point, I started on my path to college and began to care a lot more about my education.

I was lucky enough to be in a district that had a transfer program that allowed me to go

to other schools so I could take classes that my school did not offer and was also able

to take online courses. Having this technological access allowed me to graduate a

whole year early.

Now I am a high school graduate and am in my 2nd year of college. I have had

many unique academic experiences on my journey to get this far. When I was in High

School was a part of the TRIO program which helped me decide my academic future,

with help on scholarship applications and they even took me on several trips to different

colleges to tour their campuses. I was also a part of the Student Government in high
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Autobiographical Essay

school. I got to work on various projects that helped the school and community. I also

attended several school district meetings to share my views on different subjects from a

student viewpoint. However, I must say an essential school experience I had was when

I got to teach and help tutor the Kindergarten and First Grade. In my Leadership Class

(Student Government) we went to Willow Creek once a month and read with the

students, helped them with their assignments and sometimes we even got to do crafts

with them, which was always my favorite. We also went to a different school once a

month and were a part of the Teens Against Tobacco Group. We were able to share our

knowledge of the side effects of tobacco in a fun and educational way. I enjoyed being

able to be such a positive impact on young minds and hopefully helped them make

smart choices in the future.

My schooling has had a significant impact on my choice to be a professional

educator, and it all started with my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Etchevary. She was a

fantastic teacher who was so passionate about her job. She made me love going to

school, and it was easy to learn because she knew how to keep a classroom of five and

six-year-olds focused. Throughout my childhood, whenever anyone asked me what I

wanted to be when I grew up my answer was always a teacher. In middle school and

high school and had some more inspiring teachers and then when I was in the

Leadership class and got to go and teach and spend time with those younger students I

knew that I wanted to be like that first-grade teacher I had. I want to be an inspiration for

young kids and to be able to watch them grow. Nothing is more amazing than watching

someone grow intellectually and as a person, and then also knowing that you helped

get them there.

Work History and Extracurricular Activities

There are so many different fields of work in the world, and every single one of

them has some education involved. I am a Catering Coordinator at Panera Bread. I

started there three years ago and worked from the bottom to be where I am today. This

job, even though it is a restaurant, has given me so many teaching opportunities. I was

first promoted to an Associate Trainer about 6 months into my job. This position

required me to teach new employees how to do their jobs. I taught people how to be a

cashier, how to work on a production line, and how to be more than a dish runner while

working in a dining room. I received training plans that outlined what topics I needed to

make sure my trainee knew.

After training people one on one for five months, I received another promotion to

being a Pro-Team Member. The Pro-Team is a specialized training team sent to brand

new cafes to train associates for grand openings. I was assigned a position and

instructed a group sized anywhere from 5 people to 15 people. It was my job to follow

training plans and prepare these new employees to open and run a cafe in two weeks.

About a year ago I received my promotion to Catering Coordinator. This job is highly

demanding, from having to have a flexible schedule and working my days off to knowing

how to manage my time efficiently, it is a busy position. I am personally responsible for

taking orders, making the food, and delivering the orders. Even though my job keeps

me busy and never has a dull moment, when I received the opportunity to teach a class

we call Planet Bread, I could not pass it up.

Planet Bread is an introduction class for our new employees. We teach them

about the history of Panera and what our cultural values are and how they make our

company what it is. I hold this three-hour class at least once a month.

My job has provided me with various opportunities that have helped build my confidence

in being a teacher. I have learned how to teach in a one on one situation and how to

teach large groups. Even my catering job has taught me valuable tools about time

management, which I feel is very important for managing a classroom.

Aside from work, I use to volunteer at a hospital. Once a week I sat at a desk and

answered the phone and wrote a bus schedule for people who need rides to their

appointments. On a different day every week I went to the records department and

helped file patient records.

My time volunteering at the hospital helped sharpen my organizational skills. I believe

that being a teacher requires a lot of organization, from the lesson plans to the mass

amounts of homework that always needs grading, if you didn't stay organized how

would anything get done.

Ethical Reasoning in Education

As children we spend so much of our lives in classrooms with other student and

various teachers. As I moved from class to class without much of a thought of how I got

there. I never struggled in school but there are so many of my friends who did. Not too

long ago I read an article about teachers being under pressure to make students pass

standardized test by any means necessary, including marking correct answers when

students gave the wrong one at the request of their boss. This puts a teacher in a
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Autobiographical Essay

difficult position of possibly losing their job. I wonder how many of my friends struggled

because teachers passed them to the next grade when they were not ready for it.

As a future educator I see a drastic ethical problem here and any teacher should

look at this and say “I would never cheat a student like that”, but the reality is that

teachers do! I think it should be an important focus for all educators to have a strong

grasp on virtue ethics. The idea of not just doing the right thing but becoming a good

person. This is what teachers and other educators push their students to do. They hold

children to the standard of being a good person, not lying, not cheating, so and person

who enforces these things needs to be capable of doing so themselves. If a principal

tells a teacher to cheat on students test that teacher should report the principal to the

school district officials, thus upholding the virtue ethics and being a good person.

Choosing Education as a Career

Teaching students in K-12 takes a lot of work, especially to be a good teacher. I

believe I have what it takes to be one of those good teachers. I am passionate and

dedicated. I want to teach to make our future generations better than my own. I want to

watch children grow educationally and as people. I should teacher K-12 because I care

about where those children are going with their lives.

It takes a lot skills to be a teacher and I have quite a few of them. I am an

extremely friendly person and feel that I am easily approached by new people. This is

important in a classroom because I want my students to be able to approach me with

problems without being scared or hesitant. I am also an excellent communicator. I know

how to say the same things in different ways to ensure everyone understands. Not all

students will understand when you say something so it is important to be able to get
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Autobiographical Essay

your point across in different ways. I also think a key characteristic that makes me more

capable of teaching is that I am knowledgeable. Not to say I think I know everything

already, but in a sense that I am continuously learning and that I enjoy it. I believe you

learn from your teachers, you leaders in life, your family, and even your students. As a

teacher it is so important to keep an open mind and to continue to increase your

knowledge, but it is even more important to be able to share it with others.

Professional Goals

After completing my Associates Degree at College of Western Idaho I will be

transferring to Boise state University to complete my Bachelors in Elementary

Education. I also plan on minoring in Education Administration, I eventually want to go

on to complete my Master’s Degree and become the principal at an elementary school.

While working towards my Master’s Degree, I plan to be in the field teaching. As an

educator I think it is extremely important to be constantly bettering you knowledge of the

field you are working in, this is why I want to continue going to school myself whether

it’s full time or only two classes a semester.