Running head: ABE PAPER 1

Autobiographical Essay
Macie Diehl
College of Southern Idaho

For Education 201

Dr. Evin Fox
Spring Semester 2016

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Autobiographical Essay
Introduction
When I was growing up I had a relatively easy life. I have lived with my two happily
married parents and my siblings in the same town for as long as I can remember. Throughout my
life, I have had various work experiences such as volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club of
Magic Valley, and a couple of retail jobs as well. During my high school years, I tried to take
different classes to help me decide what I wanted to do with my life and I was also a part of a
club called FCCLA. Everything I have done in my life has led me up to a point where I know
exactly what it is that I want to do with my career and how I am going to accomplish it.
My Education
Growing up, I lived in a little brick house, in the same neighborhood for my entire life. I
never went to preschool, but from kindergarten through sixth grade I attended Harrison
Elementary school along with my younger sister. Elementary school was nothing spectacular
until I was given my first male teacher when I reached the fourth grade, Mr. Fullmer. From the
first day of class to the last, Mr. Fullmer showed every single one of his students that learning
even the blandest subjects can be made fun. He not only taught us what we needed to know
according to district standards, but he taught us everything we needed to know through laughter.
Mr. Fullmer went out of his way to be a supportive, trustworthy, kind, and fun teacher. He was so
loved by all of his students in many ways and was always willing to support us even outside of
the school environment. I can remember every Saturday having my basketball games with other
kids from my class, looking around and he was always right there to support all of us. He is the
reason I have known since I was in the fourth grade that I wanted to work with kids and make a
difference in the world.

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After elementary school I went to Robert Stuart Middle School. I dont remember much
from middle school because it was not eventful or fun in any way. After middle school I attended
Canyon Ridge High School from my freshman year until I graduated. I absolutely loved
everything about high school. I had many friends and have always had a boyfriend. Throughout
high school I always received good grades and never really got into any trouble.
While I was at Canyon Ridge, I took many early childhood classes including Early
Childhood Professions my senior year. During this class, we would go to the CSI preschool and
toddler lab to help assist the teachers and learn how they teach students. I was able to make my
own lesson plan and follow through with it as well as participate in many of the toddler lab
activities. While I was in this class, I had the privilege to be able to see through hands on
experience how kids at such a young age learn. These kids learn by doing, and they learn by
failing. The teachers would allow them to serve themselves their own snack with little assistance,
as well as spending a lot of time outside playing because at this age level, children learn through
play. They learn by observing simple objects such as a dandelion or a worm, the teacher listens
and asks questions in order to promote more creative thinking in the kids. This was an amazing
experience and I would not change it for the world. Thinking back on the experience I had in the
Early Childhood class, and of my fourth grade experience with Mr. Fullmer, I recently made the
decision to become a kindergarten teacher. This choice led me to my next life decision, which
was where I wanted to go to college.
Currently, I am attending the College of Southern Idaho and am in my second semester.
As of right now, I am taking my general classes and pre requisites such as English, math, health,
and Communications. Along with those classes, I am also taking Education 201 and 202. With
this education class, I am doing my field experience with Mr. Fullmer who is strengthening my

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desire to be a teacher every single day. With all of this being said, college is hard. Waking up
every single day and having the motivation to continue with classes can be extremely difficult
when my goal seems so far ahead, but one of my biggest motivators is my work history along
with my current job.
My Work History
When I was a freshman in high school, I decided to volunteer with the Boys and Girls
Club of Magic Valley in order to help determine if working with kids is what I want to do. This
was an amazing experience because I had so much hands-on experience with kids of all different
age groups. I worked in many programs there but the one I worked the most amount of time in
was the after school program. During this time, I would mostly help the children with their
homework, I participated in doing arts and crafts with them, we would do physical activities like
playing dodgeball, tag, throwing the Frisbee, basketball, and much more.
When the school year reached its end, I then helped with the summer program as well.
Over the course of the summer we would go on many field trips to places like the Ice caves, the
pool, I helped teach a cooking class to the children, and also helped with the dance classes as
well. I have over 890 volunteer hours at the Boys and Girls Club for over the course of two
years. While working there, it only strengthened my will to work with young children because
they were so full of energy and passion for everything that they ever did. I was able to connect
with so many kids and they were able to help me fully see that working with children is exactly
what I want to do.
After my sophomore year, my parents told me that I had to get a job that paid money
because I needed to start paying my own bills and for my own activities. This led me to get my
first real job at ShopKo working for $7.40 an hour. Working at ShopKo was a fun experience and

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helped me in many ways. While at ShopKo, I worked mostly as a cashier and in the apparel
department as a detailer making the store pretty and clean by the end of the night. This job has
helped me to learn about the real world and what is expected of me when I have a job. I was no
longer able to choose the days I wanted to work and leave when I felt like it, I had to be there
when I was scheduled and stay until the shift was over. I was also forced to learn how to work
with money and set goals along with budgeting.
When I got older, I started working at Target because it pays a lot more than ShopKo
does. While at Target, I work in many different sections. I help run the fitting rooms and am the
store operator, along with working on the sales floor, cashiering, and I am the person in charge of
the shoe department now. I am also a team trainer. Being a team trainer is so much fun because I
am one of the first people that our new team members get to work with. When I am training
someone new, I try to be as personable and helpful as I can be. These team members only get a
few days with me and then they are on their own. Everything they succeed and fail at is reflected
upon myself, and it is my job to get them all of the knowledge they will need in just three short
days.
While I am training new team members, I teach them much differently than most of the
other trainers. I believe that it is important for the team members to write down what I am saying
because it not only helps them remember, but when they forget they are able to look back so that
they can do it right. Throughout their training experience, I also find it important to remind them
to ask as many questions as they want because I not only want them to feel comfortable with me,
but I want them to retain as much information as they can. I have trained many people where I
work and it strengthens my desire to become a teacher every day. I love helping people, teaching
them, and watching them succeed at something when just days before, they had no idea what

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they were doing. Along with training, I have had other work experiences that have helped me
become the person I am today in realizing that teaching is not always going to be easy.
One day I was working in the apparel section and I had a teenage girl who decided to
purposely unfold every single table in the womens department that I had spent hours folding. I
then proceeded to engage in conversation with this woman by providing customer service and
she started yelling at me and decided to let me know how unworthy of a job I was. After this
experience happened I was so mad that I almost quit. I went home when my shift was over and
told my family all about it. They tried to make me feel better by trying to explain that there could
be a lot more going on in this womans world than I could ever know. I tell this story not because
I want to explain how horrible retail is, but I believe there is a deeper lesson that could be used in
teaching today.
Teachers face difficult situations with students every single day. Whether they are off
task, having rough days, are angry, or are not getting their work done there is always a reason
behind it. Each student has a different situation that they have whether it be at school or even in
their own homes. Working in retail has taught me that there is no reason to judge a person just by
their behaviors because there is always a reason. It has helped me to not only have more
compassion for those who are having it rough, but also to have the capability to be more
understanding of situations that are greater than my own as well. Other than my work
experience, I have also been involved in a club that has only reinforced my belief that there are
so many people in this world who are living in an entirely different situation than I am and that
there are always ways to help everyone grow.

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Extracurricular Activities
When I was a senior in high school I joined FCCLA with my best friend. At first, we
decided to be in it just to get out of class but we later realized that it was one of our best
decisions that we have made. FCCLA stands for family career community leaders of America.
This club focuses on making the community a better place to live, and working on relationships
with friends and family while building skills needed in everyday and professional life.
When I was in FCCLA, my best friend and I decided we wanted to participate in a STAR
event. Participating in STAR events is very difficult and takes much more time than anyone
would assume. This is an event that requires hard work, and finding a way to serve the
community. After giving it a lot of thought, we decided that we wanted our STAR event to be
something meaningful to more than just ourselves. We chose to adopt a family and provide
them with a Christmas. Once we were determined to follow through with this project, we then
had to follow the rules and steps provided by FCCLA guidelines in order to compete. For the
STAR event we were required to plan using a SMART goal, and we had to provide all of our
paperwork including receipts, daily journals, signatures, and pictures along with making a trifold demonstrating the steps we took to achieve our goal. We then had to make a speech and
present this project in front of a board of members. We were able to win in districts, then make it
to Boise for State eventually winning a silver status.
FCCLA has taught me so much about responsibility, family, about our Twin Falls
community, and about the importance of helping those who are in need around us. I was able to
see that there are other people who do not have as much as I do along with having the
opportunity to make a difference at such a young age. This club changed my life for the better
and has helped me to further see that I want to be a teacher. Some people may ask how could

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FCCLA and a STAR even make a difference in wanting to be a teacher? The answer is simple,
when I was able to see the poverty statistics among students just in the Twin Falls School District
alone, it gave me more reason to want to help the community grow as a whole.
I want to be able to be a safe place for a child. I want my classroom to be a place where
for the few hours of the day, they know that they are going to be warm, they are going to have
food for lunch, and they are going to be around an educator who truly cares not just about their
education, but their lives as a whole. FCCLA taught me that helping our community is
everything and it is vital to encourage children why education is important and that no matter
how much money they have, they all have a chance to make it in todays world.
Why Teach
When I was in the fourth grade, I instantly knew that I wanted to work with children
because of the influence that my teacher Mr. Fullmer had made on me. At that moment in my life
however, I did not know that education was the route that I wanted to take. When I was growing
up, I had always thought that I wanted to be a pediatric nurse. I knew that I wanted to make a
difference along with working with children. This was the career that I had thought I knew I
wanted and the career that I knew I was going to achieve one day.
In high school, I took a CNA class to help me towards my nursing career. While taking
this class, I learned very quickly that the medical field was not the type of field I wanted to work
in because it wasnt the right kind of fulfillment for me. After taking this class, I was very upset
because I no longer had any idea what I wanted to do with my life, and in my family that was
something I needed to already know. For a while I stopped caring about my future and decided to
just focus on the present day. I focused on my current schooling and making my senior year the
best that it could be.

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Over the course of the year, I would talk with my family and my cousin who is a high
school teacher, about this class and they were the ones who helped me decide on teaching. They
helped me see that the reason my fourth grade teacher helped me see I want to inspire kids is
because I am meant to be a teacher. I have always enjoyed working with kids at the Boys and
Girls Club and have always loved helping children learn about subjects that they need in order to
be successful in life.
Teaching is so much more then helping the students pass math or reading, and the
rewards for teaching are more than just a steady job or having summers off. They are inspiring
others to want to learn, to be informed about everyday life, to want to be educated, and to believe
in themselves. Sometimes teachers are the only constant in a students life. They can be the only
person who is there all of the time and the only one who shows that they care. I want to be a
teacher for more than helping our society grow as a more educated nation. I want to be the
teacher who helps individual students know their worth, know that they are capable of being
anything they want to be, and show them an entirely different perspective on learning in order to
help them become productive citizens of our country in the future. These are the true rewards of
teaching not just for the teacher, but for the students as well and is also why I am so focused on
what I want in order to achieve my future goals.
Goals
For my entire life, I have always been a very practical person. What I have wanted out of
life were the simple things such as a career that I would enjoy, a husband to grow old with, and a
family to raise. I have never really wanted to live an extravagant life, and have always had
simple short-term and long-term goals. My current short term goals are to continue with my
education at CSI and eventually transfer into ISU. By the time I transfer to ISU, I will be married

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to my now fianc, and I hope to be able to move up to Pocatello with him in order to earn a
degree in Elementary Education. I want this degree so that I can become an elementary school
teacher Twin Falls where I also plan on raising a family.
In the far future, I hope to be settled down in Twin Falls with my fianc, who would then
be my husband, and I would love to have three to four children. I want to live in Twin Falls not
only because its my hometown, but because I have almost all of my family here along with my
fiancs family. This is the town where I met the love of my life, the place where I was able to
make all of my memories and friends, and the place where I was able to make one of the best
decisions of my life; becoming a teacher.
Conclusion
I have always lived a simple life with a very loving and supportive family. I have been
lucky to be able to say that I have had various work and volunteer experiences and even luckier
to be able to say that I have not only enjoyed, but have found life lessons in all of them. My life
has been a journey that has taught me many things, and has made me the person I am today. I am
a 19-year-old college student who already knows what I want out of life, has set goals, and I
know how I plan to accomplish them. Someday I am going to be an elementary school teacher
who strives to inspire students, and hopefully help make the world a much better and more
educated place to be in.