Coach Rick Barnett was my middle school basketball coach and eventually one of my high school basketball coaches. I always knew that in order to stay eligible I had to maintain a minimum C average and that was my goal in the classroom each and every year. When I finally left Auburn in 2007, I started coaching for the first time and going back to school at The University of Alabama at Huntsville. Coach Barnett was now a fellow assistant coach just as myself. He asked me what was causing me so much trouble in the classroom. I was not having a successful college career after I walked away from my playing days and it was causing me to have a great deal of structural issues as far as the classroom was concerned. He said, "From now on, go into every class and get yourself an A. If you come up a little short then you will earn a B. You can do it." He challenged me to get out of my comfort zone and in the process showed me I was smarter than I thought. From the day at 12 years old when he pulled up to my house and gave me a basketball t-shirt, up until today, whenever I see Coach Barnett, he is always pushing me and encouraging me to be better than yesterday.
Mrs. Ward was my english teacher during my senior year of high school. One day she caught me and my friends cheating on our Macbeth test. We had stolen the test the day before and memorized the questions. Instead of writing me up, she allowed me to retake the test with different questions if I told the truth about how we got the test. She then told me that I was one of the best writers in her class and how disappointed she was that I would cheat when I was capable of more. I was more surprised that she was giving me a compliment on my work than I was that she was letting me retake the test. As a teacher, it frustrates me that a student could really wait until their senior year to hear some kind of encouragement like that but I never forgot that.
Mrs. Mann was my first grade teacher. What I will always remember about her was that from first grade on, she would call my mom and check on me and how I was doing in school. Over time, I began to expect those calls and felt a sense of responsibility to not let her down because I knew she cared about my growth as a person and a student. I can only hope that I will be able to build that type of relationship with my students as I go forward.
Dr. Ames is a History professor at USC. I took two of her classes in my undergrad work. Dr. Ames would always call on me to discuss and join in class conversation about the readings, forcing me to dive into them to avoid embarrassing myself. I started to become one of those kids in class that the teacher calls on because they know the student grasps the information well enough to share it with the class. No teacher had ever asked that much out of me. In my classrooms, I will do everything I can to make sure nobody slips through the cracks without being pushed to be successful.
Lastly, Dr. Cook has been by far the most influential person in my approach to teaching. All of the work we have done for her has been hands on and student driven. I cannot remember a single lecture and I feel as if I have learned more and will take more with me than I have in any class before now. The empowerment of us as students to collaborate and actively learn rather than take notes from her is exactly how I want to teach. She is also a life-long learner like myself and will even jot down notes from things that we learn and bring into class discussion. Just noticing her write down something that we bring to class is an encouragement in itself.
Mrs. Ward was my english teacher during my senior year of high school. One day she caught me and my friends cheating on our Macbeth test. We had stolen the test the day before and memorized the questions. Instead of writing me up, she allowed me to retake the test with different questions if I told the truth about how we got the test. She then told me that I was one of the best writers in her class and how disappointed she was that I would cheat when I was capable of more. I was more surprised that she was giving me a compliment on my work than I was that she was letting me retake the test. As a teacher, it frustrates me that a student could really wait until their senior year to hear some kind of encouragement like that but I never forgot that.
Mrs. Mann was my first grade teacher. What I will always remember about her was that from first grade on, she would call my mom and check on me and how I was doing in school. Over time, I began to expect those calls and felt a sense of responsibility to not let her down because I knew she cared about my growth as a person and a student. I can only hope that I will be able to build that type of relationship with my students as I go forward.
Dr. Ames is a History professor at USC. I took two of her classes in my undergrad work. Dr. Ames would always call on me to discuss and join in class conversation about the readings, forcing me to dive into them to avoid embarrassing myself. I started to become one of those kids in class that the teacher calls on because they know the student grasps the information well enough to share it with the class. No teacher had ever asked that much out of me. In my classrooms, I will do everything I can to make sure nobody slips through the cracks without being pushed to be successful.
Lastly, Dr. Cook has been by far the most influential person in my approach to teaching. All of the work we have done for her has been hands on and student driven. I cannot remember a single lecture and I feel as if I have learned more and will take more with me than I have in any class before now. The empowerment of us as students to collaborate and actively learn rather than take notes from her is exactly how I want to teach. She is also a life-long learner like myself and will even jot down notes from things that we learn and bring into class discussion. Just noticing her write down something that we bring to class is an encouragement in itself.