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Brooke, the host of Teacher Teacher Chats, talks about her journey towards becoming a teacher. She initially considered being a physical therapist or a speech pathologist but ultimately realized her passion for working with children. Through experiences like babysitting, leading softball camps, and nannying for a family with special needs children, Brooke found joy in making a positive impact on kids' lives. She also volunteered in elementary school classrooms and fell in love with teaching during her senior year. Brooke declared her major in elementary education and has been inspired by her professors and her work at the Goddard School. She is confident and excited about her future as an elementary school teacher. Hello, and welcome to the first episode of Teacher Teacher Chats. My name is Brooke, and I'll be your host today. I'm very excited to talk to you about what put me on the path to wanting to become a teacher someday. So, first, a little bit about me. I am currently a sophomore at the University of Arkansas. I'm pursuing my Master's in Childhood Education with a focus on reading. So, today, I'd love to talk to you a little bit about what led me here and why I'm still confident that I'm meant to become a classroom teacher. Since early high school, I've known that I wanted to work with children. At first, I thought I wanted to be a children's physical therapist. I played sports in high school, so had a passion for that for a while, and then for a little bit thought maybe I wanted to be a speech pathologist in a school, but finally had some experiences that led me to wanting to become a classroom teacher, and I haven't turned back, and I'm still confident that that is what I'm meant to do today. In early high school, as many kids do, I started babysitting a lot. I really loved those experiences, learned that I loved kids. I got to hang out with lots of kids of different ages and get to know their families, which was a really awesome opportunity. Another amazing opportunity that I got pretty early on in high school was to help lead softball camps for young kids in underprivileged communities. This was a really amazing opportunity, not only because I played softball, so I loved the sport, but I also loved the kids, and they brought a smile to my face. Every single time, I came to camp and came to practice, and this was a way that I truly felt like, even early on in life, I was able to have such a big impact on people. Through that experience, I knew that I was just meant to work with kids, and that is the way that I could have the biggest impact. A little bit later in high school, when I was a little bit older, I had the opportunity to nanny for a couple years for a family with three young children. I worked for them through the state of Kansas through a program called Helpers. They had two younger kids, not yet in elementary school, and their oldest boy was in early elementary school and had autism and Down syndrome. I just absolutely fell in love with this family over the couple years that I was with them. I enjoyed my time there every day, and again, those kids just brought a smile to my face every single time I was there. I also feel like this was a huge learning experience, and I learned how to deal with different situations and kids that may have different needs, and these are experiences that I still use in my job and in my degree today and know that I will use as a future educator. This experience was what really started to solidify me, knowing that I wanted to become a classroom teacher. My final experience in high school that led me to just know that I wanted to teach someday was an opportunity I had my senior year of high school to take a class both semesters where each day I was going for a couple hours to volunteer in the elementary school classroom. The first semester, I was in an anger management class in an elementary school and got to see many different grade levels, many different types of kids, and I just really enjoyed that. The relationships I built with those kids were really special and, again, felt like I could really have an impact. My second classroom that I had second semester of my senior year was a kindergarten classroom. I loved those kids, and the teacher was so inspiring to me and someone that I still really look up to and would love to be like as a teacher someday. I was there during their reading period in the morning and enjoyed my experience of helping kids learn to read and reading to the children, and that is when I just knew that I had to become a classroom teacher. So when I declared my major at the University of Arkansas, I declared elementary education. My intro to education class confirmed even more that I wanted to become a teacher someday. We got to see many different classrooms, many different grade levels, and that's when I knew I loved the younger grade levels even though I had so much fun in middle school and all of the grades in between. All of my classes in my degree program since then have been absolutely amazing, and I've loved them so much, seeing all of my professors' passion, especially the ones who are former elementary school teachers, has been so inspiring, and I've even had the opportunity beginning my sophomore year of college to work at the Goddard School with a variety of ages, not quite elementary school level, but, again, really seeing the impact that I'm able to have on young kids. So through all of these experiences combined and being able to see what an impact I can have on young children, I am confident that I will someday become an elementary school teacher, and I am so excited about it.
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