1

Autobiographical Essay

Hailey

Professor Wight

EDUC120 – Foundations of Education

Fall 2021
 2

Autobiographical Essay

Introduction

Over the course of my life, I have had people who I looked up to, who shared their love

for a topic with me and encouraged me to follow my curiosity. Being in class with a teacher who

loved what they taught pushed me to do the same for future generations. Added to that, my

educational background, work history, ethical reasoning in education, considerations for

choosing education as a career, and my professional goals also supported my decision to become

an educator.

Educational Background

I am not a native to Idaho; I attended Raymond Case Elementary first for four years and

then Florence Markofer Elementary for two and half years. It was halfway through sixth grade

when I moved to Meridian, ID. I attended Heritage Middle School then went to high school at

Rocky Mountain High School and graduated in 2020. After high school, I went to the University

of Idaho to pursue Wildlife/Fisheries resources. After the first year though, and lots of reflection,

I realized it was not entirely my dream that I was fulfilling and decided to pursue teaching. But

then right before I was supposed to go back to Moscow, I decided I wanted to stay home, go to

the local community college, College of Western Idaho (CWI), and get my associates.

My seventh-grade science teacher sparked my love for science. He spent the entire year

focused on the local sage-brush issue. But throughout the year, he made everything interesting

and was super excited to share information. I want to be that teacher for more students, the one

that would spark their creativity and natural curiosity, that showed them there is fun is science.

My education has provided me an example of what teacher I want to be and do not want to be.
 3

As a future educator, knowing what I as a student appreciated from my teachers can help be best

support my students.

Work History Service and/or Extracurricular Activities

Throughout my childhood and into high school, I played soccer. I started playing when I

was about nine years old and continued until I was about 16. With my younger sister also

playing, I had to ensure we were both ready and out the door on time for soccer practice. This

taught me a lot of time management. At 12 years old, I started working as a youth soccer referee.

As a referee, I had two titles: center referee and assistant referee. Both have similar

responsibilities including making sure the kids were being safe and playing by the rules we as

referees must memorize. My decisions had to be made within a split second and it had to be

correct. To add, I had to ensure parents were being respectful towards us and the game. After a

couple of years doing youth games, I was able to move into the adult league under my dad’s

supervision. My responsibilities were the same in both leagues, but with the adults, I had to

ensure my decision was precise and I stuck to it.

Once I got to the age of being able to work legally, I got a job at Albertsons. Here I was a

Fresh Cut Clerk; I worked in the back cutting and preparing fruits and vegetables which was put

out on the sales floor while maintaining communication with coworkers, ensuring holes were

filled, and then cleaning up our area at the end of the day. I took a small break to work at Kohls

where I was trained in just about every department including online fulfillment, clothing, and at

the registers. I worked at Kohls for a short amount of time as a seasonal employee during

Thanksgiving and Christmas and returned to Albertsons until I finished my senior year and went

to school at the University of Idaho.

 4

With all my experience in the soccer community, I helped my dad coach a young boys’

team. While working at Albertsons, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I drove my dad to Boise every

week and helped his team prepare for games. This was my initial teaching role and showed me

that I enjoyed teaching what I had a lot of passion for. Coaching started the pavement of the road

of teaching for me by showing me the reward of seeing the “students” be able to fulfill what they

had been taught; the joy of seeing them use what was practiced in the game.

The summer after my first year at the University of Idaho, I wanted to get more

experience with kids. I got a job at one of the local YMCAs located in Caldwell as a camp

counselor. I started by working in the Kid Zone which had kids from a couple months old to

about six years old and in the Youth Activity Center (YAC) where kids six and older could hang

out and play games during the day. In the YAC, I had a lot of kids that were in the foster system

or were in a mixed family situation. In both areas as well as in the summer camps, my main

priority was to ensure the kids were being safe, playing by the rules of the YMCA, and preaching

the core values of the YMCA to the kids. I have gained a lot of skills through my various

employers that can assist me as an educator.

Ethical Reasoning in Education

At my high school, we had a German teacher who students would often call different.

One day, we had police come into our school, went straight for her classroom, and arrested her

for drug possession on school property. It turns out she had drugs in her desk, and she had been

high while working.

Offering a solution to this dilemma is difficult because as a high school educator, one

would think they would not use drugs, especially around students. Idaho has a Code of Ethics for
 5

Professional Educators and according to this, the teacher was in violation of Principle III Part a,

d, and e. Using virtue ethics and egoism, I hope to try to make a solution to this problem.

To start, virtue ethics states that ethics are more than acting according to moral rules, that

ethics should be expanded to also being a ‘virtuous’ person who has attractive characteristics. A

virtuous person is honest, compassionate, generous, etc. every day. Living a virtuous life is not

always easy, but it is accomplishable. I think student check-ins can be useful to see how they feel

the teacher is doing as well as check-ins with the teacher would be a great way to start. By doing

this, students can help raise any red flags that may alert the district that something is going on,

keeping the teachers honest in what they do.

Egoism means exactly how it sounds, to be egoistic, selfish, think only about oneself and

the consequences of their actions. If a drug abusing teachers thought about what would happen if

they were caught, it may deter them from doing it. While we do not know exactly what was

going through her head when she made the decision to start doing drugs, the best thing a school

could do is set rules and ensure all teachers are abiding by those rules. While this situation was

rare, it obviously does happen, and I think the school did a good job of handling the situation

once they knew what was going on. It could have all been avoided if the school had known it

was going on in the first place and the only way to solve that is more interaction with staff and

students.

Considerations for Choosing Education as a Career

Being a teacher requires a skillset and, in my opinion, personality and characteristics that

not everyone has. I think my time as a babysitter, a volunteer soccer coach, and a summer camp

counselor showed me that I enjoy working with kids, educating them on a variety of different

subjects and assisting them in their everyday needs. Teaching typo always been in my head since
 6

I started getting serious in my search for a career. I chose to be a biology teacher because I want

to share the knowledge that I have accumulated over the years and to be the weird, science-

loving teacher.

As a secondary education instructor, I have many skills that I think make me a good

teacher. First, I am excited about the material I am delivering to the students. If I am not excited,

they will not be either. Next, I learned how to deliver information in an age-appropriate manner.

If the information is too basic, they will not have fun, but challenge them too much with

complexity and they lose interest. Also, I am super organized which will assist with grading

papers, getting student files together, etc. I had an art teacher who lost one of my pieces and

made me start over. This made me super upset, and I would never want to do that to a student.

Lastly, I can be super compassionate, understanding, and considerate. These are all virtues that I

think are important to being a teacher because without it, the kids will not trust me or feel they

can talk to me about what is going on.

But why should I not be a teacher? Teachers are known for not making a ton of money.

To add, there are the hours. Getting up early, sometimes staying late, and working on the

weekends; they are some things that can deter people from teaching. I feel these downsides are

something that I could get used to and are something I considered when first pursuing education.

Outside of being a teacher, I have skills that could suit other positions in the education

field. First, I have been told I am computer savvy. In high school, I took a couple of computer

application classes that gave me my first certifications for Word and Excel. To add, I consider

myself to be a good communicator. Knowing how to discuss topics to various age-groups was

something I was able to learn while I was at the Treasure Valley YMCA.
 7

Outside of education all together, I have skills that would assist me in other careers.

During my time at the University of Idaho, I got a lot of useful hands-on experience that

introduced me to careers in the Natural Resources field. I learned how to install a PIT tag in a

fish, cut open and suture a fish, track animals using a GPS system, measure trees, counting the

number of plant species in a small area, and so much more. These assignments were designed to

show the different fields within the Natural Resources industry and then the different tasks

wildlife and fisheries biologists do in their job.

Professional Goals

Short term, I will finish my time at the College of Western Idaho working towards a

Secondary Education – STEM associate degree. Once I graduate, I would like to spend some

time to grow a family and provide my kids with a solid education while having the flexibility of

homeschooling.

After a while, I will start substituting in the local schools to help get me experience

teaching. Then, I plan to get a degree along the lines of secondary education with an emphasis in

biology or just general sciences. Where I will get my bachelors has not been set in stone yet, as I

will explain why here in a moment.

In conclusion, becoming an educator is more than just a career to me and several reasons

have pushed me towards education. Through my experiences in my education, I want to show

future students what there is to love about learning just as my past teachers did for me. Had I

never had those teachers, I probably would have never chosen education as a career.