Running header: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

Autobiographical Essay

Kyra Stokes

Instructor: Natalie Raass

Fall 2018
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Autobiographical Essay

As I sit here today, just months away from graduating with my Associates Degree in

Elementary Education, I can’t help but thing about how I got here. I overcame many obstacles to

work towards achieving the most rewarding career I can think of, teaching. Today I am going to

tell you about what I went through to get here any why teaching is the career I chose through

several stages, educational background, work history service and/or extracurricular activities,

ethical reasoning in education, considerations for choosing, education as a career, professional

goals.

Educational Background

My family moved a couple times throughout my school years, so I went to a few elementary

and secondary schools. I started out in Kindergarten ay Forks Elementary School in Forks,

Washington. I attended there until half way through my second-grade year. My father was given

a great job opportunity that resulted in us moving 8 hours away, to Bridgeport, Washington. I

was terrified to go to a new school, let alone having to start in the middle of the year, but I had

to. I attended Bridgeport Elementary through 5th grade where I then continued into the middle

school for 6th grade. Due to unexpected life changes, my family then moved another 8 hours

away to Emmett, Idaho. I went to Emmett Junior High from seventh grade through ninth grade,

where I then went to the high school for my junior and half of my sophomore year.

Unfortunately, during my sophomore year, I made a horrible decision. I decided to skip school

for a week with my friends. In result of that, I was kicked out school. A few weeks later I

enrolled in an alternative high school called Black Canyon Alternative, that they had just opened.

In the three weeks between getting kicked out of regular high school and enrolling in the

alternative school, I had got a job and moved out on my own. I thought that I would not be able
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to go back to school so I need to start being a responsible adult early. Attending high school with

a full-time job was hard and caused me to miss school sometimes. With that being said, they

started making me start credits over due to me leaving for work. After restarting 7 credits I was

no longer on track to graduate with my class. It was at that point that I made the worst decision

of my life; I dropped out, and never went back.

In 2013, I was working as a therapy tech with individuals with disabilities. The company I

was working for got informed that the law was changing, and we needed to have a GED in order

to provide services for children. At the time, I was running the Children’s Center, so I had until

the end of the year to get my GED. After some practice tests and a little studying, I did it, I got

my GED. It wasn’t until 2016 that I decided to go to college, where I am currently on track to

graduate with my Associates Degree in the spring of 2019.

I think I can consider Black Canyon Alternative a unique educational experience. They were a

school where you worked at your own pace for each credit. Considering that I was almost a

straight A student when I got kicked out of high school, I could move through credits rather

quickly. Unfortunately, the school system didn’t work out for me the way I had hoped. I think

that if I did not decide to grow up as fast as I did, it would have been an amazing educational

process for me.

I remember in preschool and kindergarten when they ask you what you want to be when you

grow up, mine was always a teacher. When I got kicked out of high school, I thought that dream

was gone forever. I remember thinking to myself, “What school is going to hire someone who

got kicked out of high school.” That was the reason why I started working. If I was not able to

teach, there was no point in going to college. When I look back now, I wish that I had a teacher

back then that would have been there for me. Someone who would have noticed I wasn’t there
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for a week, which was out of the ordinary for me. Before then, I hardly ever missed a day, was

never in trouble, and was an exceptional student. In 2016 when I found out that I could go to

college and become a teacher even with just my GED, it was a dream come true. I want to be that

teacher that has a strong bond with every student in the class. I want to be the one to check on

them when I notice something is different. I was a great student who made a mistake, I didn’t

deserve to be kicked out of school, a warning would have done the trick. To top it off, those

students I skipped with, the ones that hardly ever went, they graduated and walked with our

class. They had parents that stuck up for them, who were big in the school district and the

community. Mine weren’t, they worked a lot and didn’t have time. I want to strive to be the best

educator I can, but more importantly, I want to the one who sticks up for them when no one else

does, especially when incidents like mine occur. Everyone makes mistakes, instead of taking

their education away, lets teach them how to learn from them.

Work History Service and /or Extracurricular Activities

I have had several jobs and roles that have contributed to my development as a professional

educator. Such as, therapy tech, paraprofessional, youth mentor, and coaching my kids’ sports.

When I was working as a therapy tech for a local agency, I had the opportunity to work with

individuals with disabilities on a day to day basis. For the first 2 years, I worked with adults, and

my job was to help them with goals of being able to function independently in society. For

example, some of them had cooking goals or even goals on crossing the street. The last 2 years

of being a therapy tech, I worked with children. My job was to still run goal and help them

succeed, but they were different goals. Some would be as simple as sharing a toy, and others

would me more complex like telling time or cooking their lunch. The look of accomplishment

when they were able to successfully run that goal and meet expectations for 3 months straight
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and knowing they didn’t have to do it anymore was an amazing feeling. This is what opened my

eyes and made me realize I still wanted to teach.

I happen to hear about a position at our local school district that was available and did not

require a college degree. I applied and interviewed for it, along with many other people, and to

my surprise they thought that I was just what they needed for the job. September 7, 2015 I started

working as a paraprofessional in our local middle school. I was working in a tier 3 special

education classroom, helping teach math and language arts. That class was for students who had

and IEP and were not up to grade level so being in a general education classroom would not

benefit them. We taught a scripted, modified curriculum so I never got the experience to do

lesson plans, we just did what the book told us. I loved it when the teacher that I worked with

had to do paper work or had meetings to go to because I always got to teach. This happened

more often than not.

The summer os 2018, I got an email from out school youth mentor stating that she was not

going to be coming back to the school this year and she wanted me to apply for her position.

Within the next couple days I had 5 other people contact me and suggest I apply as well. I was

weighing the pros and cons that would come with the new position. I would not get to teach math

and language arts anymore, and would be out of the classroom setting completely, but at the

same time, I thought I would be a good fit for the job. I was laying in bed that night and I

couldn’t help but think that when I come home after work and my fiancé asks me how my day

was, I don’t say “I taught the students multiplication today” or “We read the coolest story,” it

always starts off with, “I had this kid who was super overstimulated and was having this huge

behavior. I was able to de-escalate him, find out what the antecedent was to the behavior, and

come up with strategies together on how to prevent it next time.” That is when it dawned on me
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that I am drawn to the behavioral aspect of it. I get a huge sense of accomplishment when I can

prevent an escalation or help de-escalate a situation. So, for 3 full weeks now I have been the

Youth Mentor at the Middle School. I get to help build positive relationships with students who

need a positive influence. I also have a caseload of 504 students who have behavioral issues that

I meet and strategize with weekly. I observe them in their classrooms and make sure that the

behavior plan we are following is working. Although, it has only been 3 weeks, I am in love with

my new position and it just pushes me towards my degree even more.

Another role that I have that has contributed is coaching. I have spent roughly 8 year coaching

my children in their sports. When you coach, you are not just coaching one child, you have a

team of them. Some of them are eager to learn and others are only there because their parents

make them. Either way, you have to make it fun and teach them the skills as well. I feel that this

is the same concept as being a teacher in the class. Some love school and want to come and learn

every day, others are there because they have to be. As the teacher, it is your job to make it fun

and excited and make everyone want to learn. Coaching and teaching are both searching for the

same outcome, to teach. Coaching has taught me that even though it can be a struggle, with

creativity and positive attitudes, you can teach anyone.

Ethical Reasoning in Education

I love everything about my job. Being able to work with students in and out of the classroom

is helping me improve my skills so that when I become a teacher, I will be familiar with it. But,

in my 3 years here, there is one thing that continues to bother me. When a student is failing in

our sped class at the end of the trimester, the teacher will adjust the grade so that he or she

passes. I find this unethical through the relativism orientation. I think that the teacher should be

figuring out why the student is not passing, because it could be for more than one reason. Maybe
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they are not receiving their accommodations or modifications, or they need to have them re-

evaluated and changed. Or maybe they really do not understand the lessons that are being taught

and do not know how to ask for help.

When I asked why she changed the grades, she said that she is supposed to so that they pass

and that she is not allowed to let them fail. As a teacher, it is our job to search for that reason

why a student is not passing. Even if it means that we stay after school for extra tutoring or

create a way to work one on one with the student until they are understanding what is being

taught. Changing the grade at the end of the trimester to ensure that they pass is not what I think

about when I think “No Child Left Behind.” Although, in my experience with this situation, I

think that is the way the teacher sees it.

I have never thought about how responsibility may be falling into my hands, until now. If I do

the ethical thing and take it to the administration, maybe it will get addressed. With it being

addressed, maybe the students who are failing in the future will get the appropriate assistance

that they need to succeed. Instead of letting them pass without the knowledge that they need,

which is pretty much setting them up for failure in the future.

Considerations for Choosing Education as a Career

I believe that I should be a teacher in K-12 because it has been a lifelong dream of mine to

teach. I love working with children, so I prefer to stay in the K-8 section of it. SinceI have been

working in the school district for going on 4 years now, I have plenty of experience in and out of

the classroom. I have experienced minor to major behaviors, learning disabilities, and intellectual

disabilities and know the struggles that it can have on a teacher, and I think that is what pushes

me harder to be a teacher. A lot of general education teachers do not have that experience or
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liking to the special education aspects that I do and I believe that is why our students struggle

more.

Working in special education and behavioral part pf my job has given me several skills for

working in the school district. If I was to not become a teacher, I would want to be in the special

education department somewhere. I could be a behavioral interventionist or even work toward

running the district special education program. I can’t help but have a connection to the special

education side of things. A connection so strong that I may need to consider a special education

teacher instead of general education teacher.

When I was kicked out of high school, I had to get a job a job fast and did not have any

experience. I ended up working in the food business for about 7 years. I absolutely love to cook

and it a hobby of mine. Although I have the skill to work in a cooking career, it is not something

I wanted to do any longer, I believe my skills in the schools are far more advanced than my skills

in a cooking career.

Professional Goals

My main long-term goal is to get my bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and teach

my own class. I am currently in the process of my Associates Degree at College of Western

Idaho and like I said previously, I am on track to graduate in the spring of 2019. I am still not

100% sure where I want to transfer to get my bachelor’s degree though. It is a toss up between

Boise State University and Eastern Oregon University. I have a meeting scheduled with my

advisor to help me weigh the pros and cons, so I can make sure I choose the right school for me.

Once I transfer, next fall, I plan to full time courses so that I can be done as soon as possible. I

am hoping to graduate with my Bachelor’s in the Spring of 2021, even if that means I have to

take summer courses.

In order to achieve my long-term goals, I must achieve my short-term goals. My first short

term goal is to complete Fall semester. Then, complete Spring Semester. I also want to maintain

my grade point average and remain on the Dean’s list. As of right now, I have a 3.8 and I would

like to at least keep it there. If I achieve all 3 of these goals, I will have my Associates Degree in

Elementary Education, and on my way to achieving my long-term goal of becoming a teacher.

So there you have it, all of the obstacle that I had to overcome to get to here and what has

given me the drive to become a teacher. Looking back on the educational background, work

history service and/or extracurricular activities, ethical reasoning in education, considerations for

choosing, education as a career, and professional goals, I cannot say that I am surprised that I am

pursuing my career as a teacher. Those are all the things that have helped me become who I am

and have such a passion in teaching. I am proud of the obstacles I have overcome and that I have

made it this far. I cannot wait to look back on this when I am teaching my own class.