Passions

In a blog post, tell me what you are passionate about in terms of education future goals. . .What do you hope to do with this passion (or what are you already doing with this passion?) If you had to narrow down your passion to one specific aspect in terms of your future research, what would it be?

A career is not simply a job; rather it is a life commitment to one’s passion. Since I was young, teaching has always interested me as a career option. Becoming a teacher has been my goal for a long time. As a high school teacher, I hope to build relationships with students to help them with their personal and educational problems. For me, it is not as pleasing to do something for a living, as it is to serve others. Now that I am about to accomplish this goal of becoming a teacher, new ideas have come to mind.

Through out my academic career I have been fortunate to have counselors and teachers that take me as more than a student and not just a name on their roster. They have shown their concern for my well being in and out of school by getting to know me. Like them, I hope to motivate students to want more for themselves in regards to education and life. Motivating students is an easier said than done. Every class and every student have different needs, thus my interest for future research would have to be in motivating students in academia. In particular, I am interested in researching what are the things that prevent a student from preforming at their potential. Is it their prior knowledge? Do they not see the worth in having a good education? Are there family constrains?

Another area that highly interests me is character education. Character education is something I believe schools are paying more attention to now. For instance, there are rubrics on what a students citizenship grade should be. I am interested in looking into the things that I can do within my classroom to help create a better learning environment. My goal is to make all my students feel like my classroom is a safe place to voice their opinions and thoughts. Thus, I am interested in looking into collaborative and independent work, bullying, and character development.