“Both my parents were teachers. My mom and dad were both Phys. Ed teachers. My dad did some administration. They were coaches. They were both athletic directors. My mom also ran the Drama Club. So I kind of grew up with that lifestyle of late nights, dinners whenever you can, on the go, students and families stopping over to talk. So to me it was just what we did. It was normal. And then, when I was out of it, I realized I kind of liked it. I went to college and played football, and the goal was to play football and to graduate. But I didn't care what I graduated in. I didn't really know. I was Exploratory until sophomore year. They told me ‘You gotta do something’ and I said, ‘Well, I want to be Explorer.’ They didn't take that and so I got into Sports Management. I was excited about being a part of Sports, but the Accounting and the Math classes were just not me. It was too Business. So I did Sports Studies. (…) I really valued those classes (…) but there was no job in it so I graduated and started substitute teaching consistently and coaching.“
“I thought, ‘Well, I like substitute teaching. I like working summer camp. I like coaching. Let me do this.’ And so I did it.”
“I took the plunge and did my Master's [in teaching] and I have taught ever since.”
“Then ten years as a 4th grade classroom teacher, all in [my current district]. My first year was at [one school], and then [my current school].”
“On one hand, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the control of having my own classroom, which was my own laboratory, where we could do whatever we wanted and get deep into projects. But the other side of that was frustration of maybe being critiqued a lot or maybe only feeling like I was being critiqued (…) [Also] some frustrations with parent emails asking things that I didn't feel should be asked and asking things that were great to ask but I'd already answered them for ten straight years, and I was done answering them. And I was like, what I love is teaching, but I don't know—maybe I should get out of the classroom. So I got my supplementary certification in Reading (…) This is my fifth year now being a Reading teacher at [my school] and I absolutely love it.”