So I have always loved teaching others because of the joy they get when whatever I am teaching clicks in their head like that light bulb feeling I get when I finally understand that move I have been working on for months. It all started when I was in high school and began teaching swim lessons to little kids during the summer. It is still the best feeling I have ever had. When I am able to let go of a 6 year old and he/she floats on his/her back without my help, the smile on their face makes my heart and stomach jump for joy. Well, I miss it very much but I haven't had the chance to teach a swim lesson in almost 2 years now, but I have continued my joy of helping and teaching others. I continued with getting my undergraduate degree from Central Michigan University with a double major in Secondary Mathematics and Physical Education. Many steps along the way put me in the classroom and with children to help everyday but the next most rewarding experience for me was working with special needs students in a special physical education course. The first semester I was involved, I was assigned to a student who at one time was fully functional with no physical or mental impairments at all. The student suffered a closed head injury and will for the rest of his life be confined to a wheel chair with no verbal communication skills at all. At times, it was actually difficult to tell how much activity there was in the 18 year old's head. Now with this being a physical education class I was given the difficult task of creating physical activity for the student that could barely move his arms or legs on his own. The joy of working with the student really hit me when I became part of his emotions. To see the student cry because he was having a bad day or smile because he saw a pretty girl would make or break my day as well. That experience put me back in that course helping for the next 2 years as well as volunteering with the Special Olympics state summer games in Michigan. I have had thousands of other stories I could tell you all but those are two that have shaped my life. I still continue to help people today with anything I can. I have taken on three college math students and hope that I can make a difference in their education and/or life somehow. I live for those light bulb moments and so far my new students haven't disappointed. I cannot thank the people enough that have given me the opportunity to have these experience that have literally made me the hard working and caring person I am today. Just know that if you were there along the way you meant a lot in my life as well.
