Examples and Supports

Teaching was, for me, a very accidental career field.

As I reached my teenage years, I started considering where I would go to college and what I would study. At the time, I lived in Oklahoma about thirty minutes from Norman, where The University of Oklahoma is located. I was already determined to be a writer, so I decided that I'd study journalism to support myself as I worked on finishing and publishing a novel until that could be my full-time job. OU is a strong journalism school, so I thought that I had a solid plan in place.

That is, until my parents divorced and I eventually moved to Mississippi.

I explored other career fields and still felt that journalism was the best fit; Mississippi State University was just across town from where my family lived, so I decided to attend there.

There were many new experiences that I had to navigate; signing up for financial aid, getting a parking pass, learning to navigate the bus routes, and finding the different classes on campus. I committed the first-year error of scheduling classes hours apart, leaving me hanging around the student union or library trying to study or do homework but ultimately napping.

I made it through my first year relatively unscathed, with good grades and a second major of theatre once I knew that was something that I could do. Since I hadn't really taken any of the core journalism classes that first year, I still thought that it was going to be my chosen career.

But as the semesters wore on, I started to realize that I was growing less enthused about having to talk to people that I didn't know on a regular basis. (My introversion, while lessened among my peers, was still pretty intense.) I got around talking to strangers for my assignments by interviewing friends from the community theatre, and once a friend's mom. But I became increasingly disillusioned by the prospect of being a journalist.

I was resigned to finishing my degree as it was and just being a seamstress or something, drawing on the skills I'd gained from working in the costume shop, when a friend suggested that I look into an alternate teaching degree.

It made sense, honestly. I'd been the youth pastor at my church for years, and by that point I'd been assistant directing the children's show at the community theatre for a few summers in a row. I was good at working with kids, and I loved reading and writing.

So I finished up my undergrad studies and immediately started my graduate work as an alternate route teacher.

The first year felt just like undergrad, except my classes were online. I still worked on campus, enjoyed the company of my friends, and participated in theatre. The second year was a required internship of sorts. I had to be hired as a teacher and learn on the job.

Thanks to that same friend's connections, I got my first job teaching sixth grade English Language Arts.

When I tell you that the learning curve was a steep one!

I'd never experienced public school from the student side, so there were many regular processes that I had to learn in addition to the regular learning I was doing as a new teacher.

The students had breakfast in the classroom. I found syrup in my bookshelves and magazine tower enough times that I banned syrup in my room. I had to walk them to their specials block, and to lunch. I had to either eat my lunch while standing and monitoring my students or wait until their specials block at 2:40 to eat my lunch. There was so much more to teaching than just teaching, and I had no way to have known that.

If students go the regular route into teaching, it involves several semesters of study before becoming a student teacher. In student teaching, a studying teacher is paired with a full-time teacher to learn the ins and outs of classroom management, lesson planning, and more. They have a supervised release, and the resident teacher is always there to give feedback and support if needed.

However, because I was on an alternate route I didn't get a resident teacher or student teaching period; I had a supervisor who would observe periodically, but day-to-day, I was on my own. I was thrown the wolves, as it were. Thankfully, I was surrounded by amazing staff who worked together to help me learn the ropes.

My principal sat me down after a particularly rough day and told me that the students need to have examples so that they know what their completed work should look like and also so I know what I want them to accomplish. The reading specialist showed me strategies to help make the lessons more accessible to my students. Two consultants came in and gave me strategies, materials, and support on my worst days. My team leader was always there to step in if the students got out of hand, even retesting them when I was out of town during state testing and the substitute clearly didn't have any control over them. My mentor teacher helped me create lessons and materials, sharing her years of expertise. My assistant principal was always there to encourage and support me when I needed it. One of the other teachers had recently graduated from the same program that I was in and gave me tips on how to succeed.

Without this amazing team of people, I wouldn't have made it through that year or the next nine after that. All of them were patient examples and supports that made it possible for me to learn and grow.

I've learned not to take such people for granted. Since I've embarked on the journey of self-publishing, I've been connecting with and following self-published authors who can share their experiences and advice so that I don't find myself in the position of publishing with no readers like I did the first time.

And I'm confident that this time, with all of the support, that I'll succeed.