Day 1: How Did You Decide to Become a Teacher?

From the age of 10, I knew that I wanted to teach.  I'm not sure if it was the 'glamour' of having a captive audience or if I just really connected with my teachers.  I'm thinking it was the latter.  My 4th grade teacher was amazing and I really remember a lot about that grade and what I learned (and the specific lessons and how they were presented).

Of course, the subject changed along the way - first, it was a band director, then a choir director, then an English teacher, and finally decided on majoring in secondary science education (because I was told that with a science teaching degree, I could get a job ANYWHERE).  (That was my 10 second career guidance I received my junior year in high school.)

So, I set my sights on the University of Northern Iowa (because if you want to teach, that's where you go...) despite my mother's pleading that I go to Luther College. (My bank account appreciated the state university decision!)

My decision to teach never wavered throughout college and after my student teaching at Marshalltown HS in 1989, I was ready to take on my own classroom.  Being engaged and my fiance' established in Des Moines, my job search was focused on Central Iowa - and very few science teaching jobs were available.

I started that fall as a substitute teacher for three districts, but being at the bottom of the sub list, I rarely got called.  Frustration set in and I stopped subbing and got a full-time retail job.  The next summer, I was applying again and I got one interview - but I did not get that job because the school also needed a head football coach.

Figuring that teaching was not in my future, I scrapped my dream and started looking for alternative employment.  I started at Norwest Banks in the fall of 1990 and spent the next 15 years climbing the corporate ladder in various companies (and the last 2/3rds in the training department) and obtained my MBA in Organizational Development in 2004.

The tides turned in early 2006, when looking for a job after being unemployed, I started subbing again to bring in some income.  I fell in love all over again with the teaching profession and realized that's what I needed to do.  I started applying for teaching jobs and was hired as an 8th grade science teacher at Waukee.

I was a first year teacher at 40 years of age.