Name: Paige Ballard

EDUC 250: Journey into Teaching

Please answer the following sets of questions as completely as possible. Use a different
color or font for your writing so that it stands out.

1. What kind of a student are you? What were your grades like in high school? How are your
grades now? How hard did you have to work to get good grades? Do you test well? In what
areas do you excel? Were you ever in special programs (special education, speech, gifted and
talented)? Should you have been? What impact might your achievement or lack of achievement
as a student have on your ability to succeed as a teacher?

I would consider myself as hardworking and studious. I was a straight A student in high school, I
was always on the Honor Roll, I had over a 4.0 GPA, and was Valedictorian. I put in as much
time as I needed for each class, it varied depending on the subject. Tests have always made
me nervous, but I usually do well. I would say I excel in areas that require more logical and firm
answers as opposed to creative, “there is no wrong answer” type of questions. I was not in any
special programs, and I do not think I needed to be. Since I have always done well in school, it
has been a goal to continue that. Since I have always strived to excel in school, I think that I will
be able to help students with achieve that as well.

2. What do you enjoy learning about? What are your learning interests? What have you done
beyond the classroom to learn more about topics you enjoy? What are your learning passions?
What have you done to pursue and develop your passions? Why would teaching and enjoying
learning go hand in hand?

I am the type of person that enjoys learning about anything I can. To be more school specific, I
enjoyed English and science, occasionally math. My senior year, I decided to try to something
completely new. Throughout all of school, I had stuck to academic classes. So, I enrolled myself
in a quilting class. This was something I enjoyed because I worked on being more precise and
accurate in a way that was different than equations or chemical experiments. I think that this
represents how the arts are sometimes pushed aside for academics. After realizing how much I
loved quilting, I also realized how much it helped me relax when I was stressed about classes.
This was important for me because then I loved it even more. I would like to try to incorporate
art activities into my class. If I work in a middle school, I would also highly encourage my
students to continue with classes outside the standard academic classes. I think that having
classes like that help make school more enjoyable in general, and this would help students want
to go to school, instead of hating it.
3. If you were to draw a timeline of your life, what three events on the timeline have had the
most impact on your decision to pursue teaching as a career? Describe each event as well as
the impact it had.

The first event was when I was in middle school. I had a project and presentation for sixth grade
social studies on what I wanted to be when I grew up. I did mine on being an elementary school
teacher. The project involved doing some research on the career we picked, including facts like
education needed and average income. I think about this project a lot, especially when I was
switching majors. Once I started high school, I jumped around a lot with what career path I
wanted to follow: forensic scientist, science teacher, English teacher, chemist, psychologist.
When I started at NDSU, I was a psychology major, and one class I took made me realize that
was the wrong place for me. I thought back to this project and my second event.

The second event for me was senior year in high school. I was in the National Honor Society
and need so many volunteer hours. My third-grade teacher is a close family friend, so I asked
her if I could volunteer in her classroom once or twice a week for a couple months. She said yes
and had me come in and work on math and reading skill with the students either in small groups
or one-on-one. She also let me grade some assignments. This was great for me because it was
the experience that lead to my realization that I want to work with kids. Originally, I wanted to be
a pediatric psychologist. When I was switching majors, this experience stuck out. I realized that
being in her classroom didn’t make me want to just work with kids but work in a classroom and
help them learn.

The third event for me has less to do with teaching and kids. When I was 12, I was told I have
hypoglycemia. I struggled with that until I was 14, when I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.
Throughout school, I never had a teacher that fully knew things like signs of low blood sugar or
what all I would need to do. One teacher knew some things about it, because she was my
biology and anatomy and physiology teacher. I want to be someone that now only my students
but also other students in the school can come to if they are having difficulties with their
diabetes.

4. Describe any distinguishing talents you might possess. How do you demonstrate them?
What could your talents contribute to your professional life as a teacher? What could your
talents contribute to your classroom?

I would say one talent I possess is my ability to be a good listener. I know that I have a few
friends that will come to me to rant about things. I’m good at just listening to what they have to
say and being there for support. I also do my best to listen to everything when I’m in a
disagreement with someone. I believe it’s important to listen to what the other person or people
have to say in order to find the best, or at least most fair, solution. I think that being a good
listener is important in teaching because it is the only way to know what your students need. If
you don’t listen to what they are struggling with, or why they don’t understand something, you
will never be able to help them figure it out.
Something else I would consider, maybe more so a skill, would be knowing when to take a
break. I used to work at a daycare center, and I could tell when we needed to change activities:
art, outside playing, reading, games, etc. This will be important in a classroom to make sure I’m
not sticking on a subject when the students are losing too much attention. A quick break before
returning to it could help them become more focused.

5. Are you an independent, self-directed learner, or do you need a lot of direction and support?
Explain. How might this question connect to how you teach?

I think I am mostly independent. If there is something I don’t understand or am struggling with, I

6. Do you consider yourself a creative person? Why or why not? Explain. What might this
question have to do with teaching?

I think I would consider myself more of an analytical person than a creative person. Although,
that doesn’t mean I don’t have any creativity. I like activities that allow me to make something
new and try out different ideas in the process. One example is quilting. I usually follow the
pattern, but sometimes it is more fun to switch it up and make it more your own. I always
enjoyed art class in elementary and middle school, I just would ask a lot of questions because,
even if it is a project with no real instruction or direction, I still like to have some sort of guideline.
I think that is where the analytical side of me comes in.

This would be important for teaching because teachers must find ways to keep their students
engaged in all classroom activities. For example, my third-grade teacher found ways in
incorporate art into math, and that helped me learn a lot faster than just being told and shown
how it worked. Another example was my fourth-grade teacher; for geography, we would learn
about the states in regions. At the end of each section, we would cook a typical food or two from
that region. Bringing the states into our classroom made it more fun to learn about them and
their cultures.

7. In the space below, tell one story about yourself that would best give insight into the kind of
teacher you might be.

In high school, I was a swim coach for the local youth swim club. My responsibilities included
planning workouts and technique sets for each practice, keeping track of attendance, showing
and explaining new concepts, finding new and fun ways to keep kids excited about swimming,
and, most importantly, making sure everyone was safe during practices. There was an issue
one year when a parent was observing a practice. She thought that the other coaches and I
weren’t paying enough attention to all the kids and were letting one kid drown. She brought this
up with my boss, who would be at practice once every other week or so. My boss asked her to
describe what she saw and if she would be willing to meet at the next practice to talk about it. All
the coaches were also approached with the issue. The kid she was concerned was drowning
was, in fact, not drowning. He was just not very advanced in his technique and not as fast as
some of the others. I explained this to the worried parent and reassured her that we always
have a lifeguard on duty during practices and over half of the coaching staff are lifeguards as
well. I also made sure to let her know that she can come to any of the coaches with further
concerns about her kid. She informed us that it wasn’t even her kid she was worried about. This
made me slightly frustrated, but I made sure to stay calm and professional, and I thanked her for
looking out for all our swimmers, not just her own.

I think this story shows that I will always look out for what is best for my student’s safety and
learning. It also demonstrates that I will be able to work well with parents when they have any
questions or concerns about what I am teaching or how I am teaching it.