Running Head: Educational Autobiography

Educational Autobiography
Maxwell Pawlus
Ivy Tech Community College

Educational Autobiography

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INTASC Standard, Description and Rationale

Standard #1 Learner Development

The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and
development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and
physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning
experiences.

Name of Artifact: Educational Autobiography

Date: September, 15, 2014
Course: EDUC 101

Brief Description: For this assignment I have summarized my educational experiences through three
major events that have taken place in elementary school, middle school, and high school. I also explain
how these three major events have shaped my perception of education and my future teaching style.

Rationale: To document my understanding of Standard #1, Learner Development, I have

documented my experiences throughout my educational career to show my development as a
learner.

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Educational Autobiography

We teach as we are taught. Although we often dont acknowledge it, we are a

collection of our own experiences. The moment you take your very first breath on this earth,
your brain is being molded by everything it perceives. This is especially true in regards to
educators. From every teacher weve had, to every lesson plan weve been taught, to every
homework assignment weve completed, and even every disciplinary action weve received,
We teach as we are taught. Our brain has developed a schema of education, and after thirteen
plus years of school; it can be difficult to conceptualize anything outside of those pathways.
However, our experiences may not represent optimal educational strategies and this can become
crippling. If we are to understand why we teach the way we do, we must look at how we were
taught. By doing this we can begin to understand our own perceptions and break down those
barriers. I believe this to be the first step to growing as an educator and essential in finding
yourself as a teacher. There are three major events that defined my educational experience: being
held out of the excel program in 2nd grade, getting cut from my middle school basketball team,
and withdrawing from high school twice.
I grew up on in Warren Township on the eastside of Indianapolis in a very diverse
neighborhood on 25th street and Post road. As I have gotten older many people have described
this area as poor or ghetto, but I never saw it that way. I never felt like I was in any danger as a
child and my family always had more than enough. As far as I knew everywhere looked like my
neighborhood. I now realize this isnt necessarily true, but I have the invaluable experience of
growing up surrounded by different cultures. Ignorance will never be a problem with me because
I know nothing is as black and white as it appears from a distance, and there is always an
explanation for why things are the way they are. Both my mother and my father are from

Educational Autobiography

Hammond, Indiana and grew up in working class families. No one in my family has graduated
college, although both of my parents have attended college. I have an older sister of 5 years and
she was always the model child. She got straight As in school; she was in all the Excel
programs, and she set the bar for my parents expectations. Which brings me to the beginning of
my education. Throughout my first years in school my teachers and peers always considered me
intelligent. Looking back at yearbook signings or assignments where you had to write something
about your classmates, I was always described as smart, funny, or good at basketball. Even
though I was considered smart, looking back, my grades didnt exactly reflect it. I had almost
straight Cs throughout first grade, which was mostly due to a lack of completion on
assignments. This led my parents and my teacher to question whether it was a problem with my
attention or a lack of interest due to not being challenged. My mother suffers from some mental
disorders so she was always quick to tell my doctors to put me on any pill to help me. Whether it
was ADHD or depression medication, but I never felt any effect. I still dont believe I suffered
from either. I was just more concerned about friends, basketball, and video games than I ever
was about homework. The next question was whether moving me up to the Excel program would
spark my interest in school and lead to better grades. Of course my parents wanted that for me
due to the success of my sister, and at the time I believed it was something I wanted, but in the
end my 1st grade teacher decided to keep me in the regular program. This has changed my life in
more ways than I can even predict. It wasnt until the beginning of middle school I was finally
placed into the accelerated program.
The first thing I noticed about the accelerated program is that the concepts arent
necessarily more difficult than regular classes, but the workload is tripled, if not quadrupled. The
next difference is that I wasnt the clear-cut smartest kid in the class anymore. Now there were a

Educational Autobiography

class full of smart kids all competing to be the best. This was my exact problem as a child. I
never had to work hard to be good at anything. Whether it was basketball or video games, I was
always the best. I never had to try hard to understand what was being taught at school. I had
never studied once in my life. I could goof off in class, skip homework assignments, wait until
the last minute to finish projects, and still get decent grades. Nobody ever instilled in me the
importance of hard work. You can survive on natural talent, but you cannot thrive. The fact is
there are people out there, who may not be as talented, but they are working day in and day out
to achieve their dreams, and theyre coming for what you want. This had very little effect on me
in school because I didnt care to compete in school. The Excel program didnt teach anything
different from the regular classes. We just had three times the work and got to go on more field
trips. However, not working hard finally caught up with me when it took away the one thing I
was passionate about. I was the last person cut off both my 7th and 8th grade basketball teams. It
wasnt because the other kids were better, but because I didnt work as hard. I wasnt
conditioned enough, I never practiced the fundamentals, and I didnt try hard enough. I might
have been able to make shots all over the court and beat all the neighborhood kids 1 on 1, but
that wasnt good enough on a real team. This lead to an even greater disinterest in school and I
failed out of all the Excel classes. I barely even got through the 8th grade, as I was to interested in
my social life to spend any time on school. I somehow managed to get through middle school
and on to high school I moved.
High school seemingly started off just fine. I somehow managed to actually have perfect
attendance my freshman year, but I failed my Composition class. This meant that I wasnt
allowed to try out for any sports teams, and again I would not be playing basketball. By the time
I turned 16 my sophomore year I got my license and car immediately. At this point school was

Educational Autobiography

beyond an afterthought and my only concern was my social life. Now that I was driving I was
skipping school whenever I wanted to. I would tell my mom I would just go in late so I could
sleep in. Assuring her that I had a study hall or some unimportant class 1st period. Other days I
would get to the parking lot and just leave with friends. At Warren Central if you miss 12 days of
class you get what is called a credit denial. The second semester of my sophomore year was the
first time I had to withdraw from school. I had missed more than 12 days within the first couple
of months, and I wasnt going to continue going if there was no way I was going to get a credit.
In addition withdrawing kept the bad grades off my transcript. After a semester off I returned my
junior year and completed a semester only to withdraw again after missing too many days the
second semester. At this point, I was several credits behind, but I still planned on graduating on
time. This meant that I would have to take summer school and night school just to catch up. The
thing I enjoyed about night school was you could finish the work at your own pace. If you knew
the information you could complete the tests, pass the class, and leave. I got over 20 of my high
school credits through night school, with most of the classes only taking me around 5 to 6 hours
to complete. I was able to tough through my senior year and still managed to graduate on time.
The three major events of being held out of the Excel program, being cut from my middle
school basketball team, and withdrawing from high school have played a major part in shaping
my perception of the education system. Being held out of the Excel program put me in the
regular classroom, which put me around people that shaped by attitude and behavior towards
school. In addition, being in the Excel program showed me that more work doesnt necessarily
have benefits in education. Getting cut from the middle school basketball team, even though at
the time I didnt realize it, in retrospect may be the most crucial event of my life in terms of
shaping my attitude. Its what really sparked my interest in teaching and coaching, because I

Educational Autobiography

hope to instill the value of hard work in young people. Withdrawing from high school has really
shaped my perception of the public school system. I dont mean to sound like everything about it
is wrong and my goal in my career is to try and change everything about the educational system.
However, I can look at the things that didnt work for me, and try to apply different methods in
my classrooms. On the flip side of that, its crucial for me to understand that not every student is
like me and some of the methods used are very effective in educating someone. Where I have
been is just a starting point. I have still have a lot to learn, but where Ive been will always be
apart of me and it will always be useful in my career.

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References