Growing up as a child, my mother would always tell me that I could become whatever I wanted to be as long as I worked hard for

it. Now, I know more than ever that a mother knows best. Since I was a child, Ive known that Ive wanted to be a teacher. Playing pretend teacher with my makeshift classroom was a daily activity for me. The subjects have changed, the grades have changed, and the fact that I was destined to be a teacher has not. Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher (Palmers, 1998, p.10). As I go through this journey on how I struggled with the decision to become a teacher, and my decisions on what type of teacher I will become. I know that I can say in confidence that I know myself and my intentions, which in return, will help me to succeed at being the successful teacher I am destined to be. Being a teacher, is my calling and passion, and I am dedicated to working hard and persevering to be a true positive influence and great teacher for my students. It would be a complete injustice to if I did not write about the fact how important it is for me to be successful teacher because of the color of my skin. Being an African-American woman, has been the greatest influence in my decision to become a teacher. Through all of my education classes, my professors have done an amazing job on explaining and demonstrating how different students learn differently based on their socioeconomic status, race, gender, among other traits. Weve learned about the injustices and discrepancies with funding and how it affects African-American performance levels. States that would not spend $10,000 a year to ensure adequate education for young children of color spend over $30,000 a year to keep them in jail. (Darling-Hammond, 2010, p. 25) Students of color were not being invested in and in return they were being passed through the prison system. Later on in this chapter, the author details on how students of color, in particular African-American students, and fall behind other races on standardized test and other high stakes test. While learning about these students, I continuously thought How can I impact education to make it equal for all students no matter their background? My experience at Clarke Central High School assisted me in answering the previous question. I impact education best when I learn students individually, learn their interest, their strengths and weaknesses. By not treating each student as just as student a, or student b, is the best way to affect each students personal performance. This is a challenging yet worthwhile task to see the improvement in each of my students.

What does being a Social Studies teacher require of me? Being a social studies teacher requires me to be an open-minded person and continue learning history. As a pre-service Social Studies teacher, it is my responsibility to be aware of current issues in the world and to remain critical of the society that we live in. In return, to assist students to become critical thinkers and to interrogate the history that we explore together. This also requires presenting multiple perspectives of history and not simply the dominant narrative of history. Which introducing different narratives to students might become confusing or frustrating, it is worth it. We can't be creative if we refuse to be confused. Change always starts with confusion; cherished interpretations must dissolve to make way for the new (Wheatly, 2002, p. 3). In my journey to becoming to be a teacher, I will be confused and so will my students. But it will be perfectly fine because we will all work through the confusion to learn more about history, each other, and the world that we live in. So, what does being a teacher require of me? It requires me to be gritty. It requires me to continue to face the unknown and not turning back knowing that I have students that depend on me for various needs. Although, I do not know who I will teach, I know my students deserve the absolute best teacher. So through confusion and all, I will strive to be the best possible teacher I possibly can.

Works Cited Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The flat world and education: How Americas commitment to determine our future. New York: Teachers College Press. Palmer, P.J. (1998/2007). The Courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a Francisco: Jossey-Bass. equity will

teachers life. San

Wheatley, M.J. (2002). Turning to one another: Simple conversations to restore hope to the Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

future. San