"The Future I Work Hard For"

I am currently majoring in English for Secondary Education. Although I want to eventually become a honorary professor, I've always wanted to teach high school and coach on the high school level. I plan to start off teaching on the high school level once I finish undergrad. Because I want to start at the high school level I figured I start with my role models who are teaching at the high school level instead of the ones on the professor level. The two people I chose to interview was Charles Cole and Gloria Winfield. Both of which who are/was high school teachers in the Chicago Public system.

I interviewed Charles Cole and asked about the rode he took and went through to make it to his teaching career. He stated that, "Once you make up in your mind what you genuinely want to do, you MUST remain FOCUS and let nothing deter it." He talked about how he started and finished at Chicago Teachers College which is now called Chicago State University. The only struggles he faced was the general classes that he had to take and that he major classes were the easiest. He stated that instead of doing a lot of socializing he studied. He formed study groups with others in the class and made sure that he knew the material, being that he studied History for Secondary Education which required memorizing lots of dates. Once he graduated from Chicago Teacher College, he stated that he work in the Chicago Public system for over 30 in many Chicago Public High Schools on the north, west and south side. Once he started his career he stated that the only thing that he had to face that wasn't much of a good experience was misbehaved students, flirtacious young female students and at one point a uneasy principal. He stated that these are some of the thing I may face as a young teacher but all he did to overcome it was set some rules/regulations and remain stearn. The students knew what rules they had to follow and what would occur if they didn't. He stated by him being stearn and being a tough teacher he was able to get the students respect. As for his principal, he stated that as long as you do what is expected than there shouldn't be any bad feedback from your boss. He stated that because he had a love for his students and his job he didn't have many bad experiences.

The second person I interviewed was a counselor who use to be a high school teacher. I chose to interview her because I always imagined myself as a high school teacher who had students that came to her for advice and with her being my ex-counselor and teacher I figured I should interview her. I first started by asking her what made her go from being a teacher to being a counselor. She stated that she loved teaching but she loved helping her students and seeing them succeed by her advice which made her want to change from being a high school teacher to a high school counselor. She was an English teacher which is actually the subject I am majoring in now. She told me to be looking forward to a lot of reading and writing. She talked about how all of her college years consisted of reading a lot of materials she liked and hated as well as a lot of papers that consisted of many pages. She stated, "as long as you read and get an understanding, everything else should come easy." Upon becoming a teacher, she stated she too faced a lot of misbehaved young students, she talked about how I would always face misbehaved students who may or may not want to learn. She spoke about how she made her material more interesting according to the things she that she saw her students has an interest in which made them want to learn more. She too said that I must be have a love for my career in order to enjoy it fully.

Now that I interviewed both high school teachers, I am well aware that I may face a lot of misbehaved students and students who may not want to learn, but they reassured me that if I have a love for my career and students I would be fine. I always had a love for helping and giving advice to younger children. I never imagined the rode to becoming a high school teacher easy but I hope it turns out to be everything I imagined.