Where It All Begins

This is not a vanity exercise. This is a record.

I am embarking upon what I expect to be the greatest adventure of my life, and there is logic to me in keeping track of its progress. In just under two months I will begin courses towards a Master of Arts in Teaching degree through Education University* The ultimate goal, of course, is to gain the degree, license, preliminary skills, and confidence to begin a career in teaching social studies to high school students.

Everything that I have read, and every educator who has spoken with me on the subject of becoming a teacher, stressed that it is a continual process. It has been impressed upon me that there is no degree that qualifies one as a teacher, only the slow painful process of learning from mistakes. I’m pretty good at at least half of that. Mistakes are a part of life that I’ve gained a pretty strong background in. But learning from them seems to be the whole key. And while I can write this now, I look back and realize that I have always relied on my memory to keep me from making the same mistake twice.

It should be no surprise that this device has failed. Memory is imperfect. I wouldn’t be much of a history buff if I didn’t know the vast importance of having it all written down on something a touch more secure than memory. Yet a quick search through my past will find no diaries, journals, and only one aborted blog attempt. All in all, I’ve done a pretty poor job of maintaining my own personal history.

So that’s where this blog comes in. This blog is intended to serve as my history. It is my safeguard against the pitfalls of memory. It is my investment in getting it right, or at least, not getting it wrong twice. I want to be the best teacher that I can possibly be, and I’m willing to bet that the best teachers have the best tools. This is the first tool in my kit.

Of course, I know that I have selected a public medium and there’s every chance that I will not be the only person reading this. All’s the better. For you, my reader, thank you for your interest. I hope that you share your own opinions, experiences, stories, and journey. Maybe, someday, this tool for me, will help another aspiring teacher. Or maybe it will just be amusing to watch my inevitable misadventures. There is certainly a bit of schadenfreude in this whole blog idea, so why not welcome it?

Now that I have welcomed you, babbled about my goal, and nearly lost the whole way, let me introduce myself. I grew up mainly north of Chicago, Illinois in a pretty typical upper-middle class suburban family. Like many in this position, I had a family that demanded involvement and commitment. I was expected to become and remain involved in myriad activities, including, but certainly not limited to: soccer, baseball, basketball, track, gymnastics, martial arts, violin, French horn, acting, writing, community service, church involvement, and singing.

At the end of the day, there were two activities that won my heart: reading and military training. I have always been a voracious reader and have thoroughly enjoyed always having an adventure on the next page. The military, though, offered me the chance to have real adventures. It gave me minute to minute opportunities to test myself and see what I could handle next. I threw myself into various para-military activities and eventually seized the opportunity to attend a military high school, and then on to the U.S. Naval Academy. Oddly, the further I continued with the military, the more I realized that I had no taste for it. I became a qualified expert with various small arms, but knew that I had no interest in ever using them. I became adept at military drill and structure, but could no longer separate the means from the ends. Fortuitously, I was confronted with medical complications, discharged honorably, and given the opportunity to try life in civilian clothing.

I attended Miami University in Ohio and learned a lot about myself. At Miami, I found passion for politics, history, culture, debate, and international relations. Simultaneously I discovered dispassion wild parties, mindless cliques, and the reign of fashion. I fell in love with the history and culture of Arabia and grabbed the opportunity to study in the Sultanate of Oman during my junior year. This experience, coupled with the frustrations of watching politics under the second Bush administration, steered me away from my conceived career in the Foreign Service. Instead, I began to look more closely at education.

To be fair, I have always harbored an interest in education, particularly teaching. But, it was always later. First, I wanted to change the world. I wanted to shape nations and engage with peoples. I wanted to alter minds and effect ideas. I guess it took a while before I realized that that is what teachers do every day.

Still, I knew that I did not want to be the type of teacher who could speak only from what they’d seen in books. Classrooms should be a window to the world, and a teacher who’s never been on the other side of the window often has a tough time describing what’s out there. This is not to say that teaching can only be done by those with non-teaching experience. I simply mean that there seems to be a direct relationship between those who have ventured beyond the school halls and the teachers who can capture the topics best for their students. With this thought in mind, I decided to see some of the world first.

Shortly after graduating from Miami, I moved to the small country of Qatar to work for Carnegie Mellon’s young campus in Education City. I will never regret the experience I gained there, living alone in a foreign land, learning to be a professional, leading and guiding students in Doha. However, I was in love, and a year away from my girlfriend was enough to convince me that I wanted to be with her and needed to see if our relationship was ready for the next step. So, I moved to Boston, where she had just begun a graduate program in Library Science and took a job at Northeastern University.

That was three years ago. During that time, I’ve certainly accomplished my goal of experiencing more of the world. In fact, as an international admissions officer for Northeastern, I’ve managed to visit 32 countries on five continents, read more than 5,000 college applications from over a hundred different countries, learn to thrive in a complicated office environment, and written dozens of policies and procedures for the university. Meanwhile, I successfully proposed marriage to my girlfriend and married her in a beautiful ceremony in Maine. We moved to Brookline, experienced enough of city life to know that we’re more of country mice, and moved out to beautiful Acton, Massachusetts. Not a bad use of three years, in my opinion. Yet, all along, I knew that admissions was not my goal. Each step along the road has only served to reinforce my desire to teach. And a year ago, it was obvious that it was time to stop waiting on my dream.

I knew that a teaching license would require about a year of schooling, so I looked into programs that combined the license and a master’s degree. Why not? I certainly have no formal background in teaching, why not give myself an academic foot to stand on? Of course, accelerated programs like the 13-month one I’ll be undertaking at Education University made the decision easier.

There was an amusing moment last fall when I found myself staring at a computer screen in Kinshasa, D.R. of Congo, editing my college essay about an hour before I taught a seminar on college essay writing. But, I guess it worked, because I was accepted to the MAT program and have yet to look back.

I am now one month from my final day as an admissions officer for Northeastern. One month to pack my office, finish the manual I’m writing, pass on what I’ve learned, and wrap up my career outside the classroom. I know that I’ll always be an adventurer, but beginning in June, my adventures will likely be strictly scheduled around the academic calendar. That’s ok. I’m ready to start. I’m excited. Here it goes…

*Names changed for privacy concerns.