Ep 1 My Journey-Tiffany's Teaching Expedition

Tiffany, an Asian American, shares her journey to becoming a first-year teacher. She felt different from her family of scientists and engineers and knew she had a nurturing side. She faced criticism from teachers and doubted herself, but college helped her reflect on her education. She found joy in working with children and decided to pursue education, combining her interests in psychology and business. She completed a master's program and gained experience teaching 2nd and 5th graders. Despite her past insecurities, she is now excited and prepared to start teaching kindergarten. She thanks her family, friends, and professors for their support. Welcome to the Tiffany's Teaching Expedition where you get to learn about my journey on how I got here as an incoming first year teacher. I am an Asian American born in China. I was raised in San Diego with my adoptive parents. I have an older brother, sister-in-law, his wife, and a nephew that was just born in April this year. Very fortunate to have my family and resources of good education growing up. But I have always been different from my parents and I think that shows with their professions as scientists and also my brother and sister-in-law being engineers. And I'm definitely not cut out for scientific or mathematical professions. I do think I always had this naturally nurturing part of me from a very young age. I wanted to take care of animals and help other friends, especially younger friends. My lifelong childhood friend is three years younger than me and she is like a little sister to me. Now, I know how sensitive I was to my environment and that if I was in an environment that didn't serve me, I would not thrive. But I really do believe that if I was in an environment that could support me, I would thrive. Now, this journey of becoming a teacher essentially is a journey of becoming my best self in the one and only environment, which is a classroom, where I'm teaching, learning, nurturing kids and myself and that is an environment where I thrive. I really have my family and friends to thank for being so supportive of me throughout this journey, especially through the master's program. Moving on to my elementary schooling, I had a mix of different teachers in elementary school. I remember the teachers who looked out for me, but mostly I remember the teachers who criticized me and it really didn't feel good to not belong. Even through high school, I had teachers that judged me for who I was and saw me as having limited potential. I think I talked negatively about myself for most of my education journey because it was almost as if I was supposed to fit into this Asian being smart stereotype. I had a lot of self-doubt. I knew that these teachers did not create or support an environment where I felt comfortable being myself, much less learning. It's the injustice that I felt in how I was just a kid and I didn't feel like I was in the position to use my voice. Not until college, honestly. I don't want any child to feel like they can't use their voice and they can't be themselves. My education journey in ballet and piano were also similar in that the adults didn't seem to believe me or believe in my abilities. I didn't live up to their potential. Even my parents and my brother knew I was not as smart, so to speak, as the Asians that went to Ivy League schools and I should shoot lower than Ivy League schools. They would tell me that. My self-worth was based on the words people said to me. My experience drives my teaching because I know I can be my best teacher and I know I can educate students who believe in themselves. I want to encourage them, not put them down. Now, how I escape the negativity and judgment from adults around me was finding enjoyment in working with children. I absolutely loved working at an art camp, babysitting, interning at preschools. My favorite class in high school was child development. I was so intrigued about how young children cognitively thought about the world. However, I didn't decide to go into education right off the bat. I was also interested in business and marketing and I had done a sports marketing internship before in high school. Now, my dad's vision for me is to start a business and that makes sense as he is a fellow scientist and business owner. So, I went to UCSD with a brand new major they had called business psychology. In college, I really had the chance to reflect on my grade school education and realize I was not learning from myself in grade school. The SATs, all the tests were to get into college, but college is not a destination. It's where I needed to create my own opportunities. The current education system does not teach you how to create your own opportunities and use your voice. I didn't have a clear path until I took that one education class. I was finally beginning to create an environment where I could thrive. Then, when I was applying to double major in education, I realized I could use my knowledge of psychology and business to synthesize that together and help children grow. I could combine my experiences and interests with motivation theory, also known as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is one of them, experience working with children and also cognitively learning about how young children think about cause and effect to influence my decision to become a teacher and get my master's of education from UCSD as well. Now, I had some experiences undergraduate classes in the classroom, but mostly observing project-based learning with 5th graders. It wasn't until the master's program that I started student teaching, and I put my previous experiences, undergraduate classes, and master classes together to support a 2nd grade classroom for a whole year. I am grateful to bring in my research-informed practice with social-emotional learning, project-based learning, and psychology theories with both 5th graders and 2nd graders. Now, I've got some examples of students and their work in my photo gallery on my portfolio website you can check out. Finally, I am standing here as an accomplished student and teacher preparing for my first year of teaching in kindergarten. I'm excited, I'm nervous, scared, but despite my experiences, I am ready. I still want to thank my parents, family, friends, all the pets I've had throughout the years. I want to thank all the EDS professors and the cohort. I couldn't have found myself and become the first-year teacher I am preparing to be today without you. I can't believe it. That scared, shy girl with no voice and low self-esteem is me today. With that, I'll end this podcast. Maybe I'll even continue it. Okay, bye for now.