My Story

5 years ago if you had asked me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I would not have answered "teacher." Today, I am 1 school year away from graduating with a bachelors in Elementary Education and I am so excited! So how did I get from that point five years ago to where I am today? It took a trip around the world and teaching in a foreign language to convince me, but here I am.

After I graduated high school I went to Chile for eight months on a mission internship. I knew where I was going and when, but I had no idea what I would be doing. My main task while I was there turned out to be teaching English at a primary school. I taught 12 different classes once a week. The students ranged in age from preschool to 4th grade. I was given no materials or guidelines on what I was to teach. This sounds daunting, difficult, and scary - and it was. But in spite of all of that, it was fun and I loved it. The kids were very receptive, for the most part, and eager to learn. My favorite part about teaching there was seeing the look on the kids' faces when something finally clicked. They would put words and phrases together in broken English and I loved the sound of it!

When I returned to the US, I decided that I wanted to become an official teacher and that is what brought me to Northwest University and to this class. I chose NU because it is close to where I grew up and has married housing for my husband and I (very important!).

When I graduate, my perfect job would be teaching 3rd or 4th grade in a bilingual classroom. I want to teach that grade because they were my favorite classes when I was teaching in Chile. I love that age because they are very receptive, are old enough to do more activities, and they still like their teacher!