Running head: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY 1

Autobiographical Essay

Boris Lubich

Professor Samra Culum

EDUC 201 Foundations of Education

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Autobiographical Essay

I didn’t know what I wanted to do after I graduated high school, and it took me a year in

college to realize what was important to me. I want to spend my life giving a good education to

countless numbers of students and help them find what they’re passionate about. I believe the

effort students put into their work is the main factor that determines their grade.

Educational Background

I am on my second year at CSI and my first year I was working on a business degree. I

switched to an education degree and now I’m working on finishing my work at CSI before I’m

able to transfer. When I’m finished at CSI, I plan on transferring to ISU to finish my bachelor's

degree in secondary education.

I graduated from high school at Canyon Ridge in 2018. During my junior year, I started

to put more effort in to my classes because prior to that, my grades had always been bad. My

grades got better over time and when I graduated, I had my best grades that I had ever earned

throughout school. My grades had been so low before that and I thought I wasn’t even going to

be able to graduate when I was a freshman living in California. I had realized that I needed to

work harder in school and go to summer school to get missing credits so that I could make

myself proud by graduating with all my friends and classmates.

I lived in California until that start of my sophomore year in high school. During my K-

8th grade, I went to school at the Charter School of Morgan Hill. My grades were always low and

during the earlier years the school wanted to hold me back a grade because they thought I wasn’t

on par with everyone else. The reason my grades were low was because I would rarely turn in

my homework, even though I knew everything I was being taught. At one point they gave us all

a high school algebra math problem to try and solve and I was one of two people in the grade
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who got it right, and the next year I was placed in the lower math class for not doing homework.

I think it’s a problem to be judging kids based of their grades. In high school I was in the lower

math class because of my previous mistakes and I graduated at top of the class because it was too

easy for me. That’s why I believe we should be looking at the effort and what kids know rather

than what grades they get. One way we can improve grading students is by having more

discussions where we grade students and include and call on everyone, so they feel like they all

have the same opportunity to speak in the class.

Work History

I completed my college field experience at Canyon Ridge high school during the end of

October to the middle of November. I had an observation project that was 10 hours of watching

classes and then 30 hours of doing stuff in the classrooms. During my time there I got to be in

four different classes. Three of them were history classes with sophomores and juniors and the

other class I got to help in was speech, taught by my favorite teacher. In all the classes I got to

walk around and talk to students and help them if they needed it and I did a lot of different types

of grading, such as worksheets, power points and speeches.

I got to see what it was like for the teachers in their rooms and it was hard work and

stressful for them. Some of them talked to me about how much effort you need to put into it and

the students can stress you out if they don’t want to learn when you're trying your best to teach

them. I also got advice from one of the teachers who was explaining to me the different types of

methods they were using, like when there are kids in special ed their tests have fewer multiple-

choice answers and the other questions give hints and take some harder things out so they can

focus on it.
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I also worked in McDonalds last year for 6 months until I worked too much and needed

to focus more on my education. I was the lobby man and I was always out in the lobby area most

of the time cleaning things and organizing things and helping people. I think this could be

important because I was there to help people and guide them if they needed it and I made them

feel welcomed. I had a bunch of characteristics that a teacher could have just from my job at

McDonalds. As a teacher I would use the techniques of being welcoming to everyone and not

being judgmental towards students that working at McDonalds has helped me grow because it’s

important for me that everyone in my class is safe and comfortable.

Service/Extra Curricular

During my final semester as a senior at Canyon Ridge high school, I volunteered to be a

teacher assistant for my favorite teacher. The previous semester I had to take my speech class

and I ended up loving it so much that for my final semester I had to talk to my counselor and the

principal a bunch of times so I could change my schedule to be a teacher assistant.

Being a teacher assistant was the first time that I had really done anything that stood out

from an educational standpoint. It was my first chance at helping a teacher and it was kind of like

the beginning on the path to teaching. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do during this time,

and I had thought about being a teacher and having my own class, but I didn’t think this was

going to be a start for me at the time.

Some of my hobbies that I do when I’m at home are playing or listening to music and

playing video games online with a group of my friends. I like to listen to a lot of music and I

mainly listen to 80’s rock bands, my favorite being Def Leppard. I can play a little bit on guitar,

but I mostly play on my piano. I’ve been playing piano for a little over a year and I mainly play

Queen songs on it. When I play video games online with my friends, we all go on a voice chat to
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talk and we play different types of games like cooperative games where we work together or

games where we compete against each other or some games just to have fun and mess around.

Reasons for Teaching

When I was signing up for college classes after high school, I didn’t know what I wanted

to do. High school ended fast and I felt like no one had helped me figure out what I wanted to do

at the time. Before the first semester of classes I registered as a business major because I felt like

that was the generic thing for me and a lot my family. During my whole first year of taking

classes I felt bored and I didn’t want to do it anymore. I didn’t even show up to a bunch of

classes most of the time, but I still passes all of them. Before the 2019 Fall classes started, I

talked to my advisor and changed my major to education because I wanted to do something that I

would enjoy rather than make a lot more money and not like my job.

I have always thought about being a teacher since high school. At the time I didn’t think I

was going to because of how much less money they make for all the work that they do. I was

able to reflect on when I was a teacher assistant in high school, and I enjoyed my time there

being around the students.

I like working in the high school environment and helping others. When I went to do my

field experience at Canyon Ridge, I felt welcomed back into school, and I wanted to spend my

time around the students because they are the reason it is fun to be there. I like to help people

whenever I can, and I’ve helped my friends who were having trouble with their schoolwork

before in tutoring.

Goals

My short-term goal is to finish my education degree at CSI. I plan on staying at CSI for a

little longer than I thought I would be here because I finished my first year, but it was business
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classes, so a lot of it doesn’t count toward my current degree. I’m doing my best to continue to

pass all my classes so I can get onto my long-term goal next.

One of my goals while at CSI for next year is to be more sociable. I want to talk to more

people and be involved in more groups. My first year at CSI, I helped tutor a small group of my

friends and I want to try to be able to do that again.

My long-term goal is to get my bachelor's degree by doing the ISU program at CSI. I

plan on doing my student teaching at Canyon Ridge when I start it at ISU, and I want to finish

my degree as soon as possible. When I get my teaching degree, I want to get a job as a history

teacher at Canyon Ridge.

Conclusion

Being in school has helped me find out what I truly want to do, and I want to be able to

have an impact on students where I can help them find their passions. I really enjoying teaching

and helping others and I want to always be available to help. I’m excited and looking forward to

the day I become a teacher, and I’m not going to give up.