Goal Reflection Essay: Long But Hopeful Road
Long But Hopeful Road
By: Candace Bill
Since an early age, I have always had a connection with youth. By my definition, I consider youth to be anyone younger than I am. In my teens, I loved babysitting neighbors and teaching younger generations how to skate at the local arena. As I got a little older, I was able to teach kids how to swim while employed at an outdoor pool in the summer. When my younger sister went to teachers' college, I realized my education and career path had not driven me entirely in the right direction (note: In Ontario, it is referred to as teachers' college).
In 2016, I finally decided to try go recapture my love of teaching and was ecstatic to be accepted into the MaED (Master of Arts in Education) at MSU (Michigan State University). As I have always been a lifelong learner, I was ready to enter into another program to further my education. In fact, over the past 21 years, I have only had 3 years where I was not enrolled in any continuing education program. My graphic below highlights the number of years I have been learning and am finally ready to take the opportunity to teach.
At the beginning of my journey, my goal was minimal and without immense drive. I assumed that upon graduation I would land a teaching gig for one or two courses at a local college. I hoped the class to just be an addition to my current career and never a fulltime responsibility. The MaED on my resume would be enough to allow the college to consider my application as a serious desire. It was also helpful that my current employer offered tuition assistance to cover the cost of continuing education.
Now that I have reached the final stage of learning, my goal has grown and become larger than I predicted. My future goal is to become a fulltime professor at a local college or university and to leave my current career in Human Resource. The day I receive my degree is the day I will start applying to openings at the school. I plan on achieving my goal gradually over the next five years, as most colleges require an employee to start part-time prior to becoming a fulltime fixture. A secondary, or much more unlikely goal, is to apply to become a vice principal at a grade school. The reason this goal is secondary is because most schools expect a teaching diploma where I live.
The main reason my goal has changed is my admiration of classmates through my courses. I am one of few anomalies in the program who have never experienced a fulltime teaching career and have limited experience of which to base my course assignments. I feel I would have gained much more knowledge within the class if I had the opportunity to use my own teaching experience and programs as a basis when learning new skills and abilities. Although the MaED program has shown me extensive knowledge in history, philosophies, contexts, planning, and many other aspects of teaching, it would be nice to improve upon a class I had used historically.
