I was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints with my three younger siblings. My testimony is growing
every day, because I'm always learning new things about the gospel and how it
pertains to me. I know that without the Church in my life, I would not be who I
am today, or have the desire and passion to teach.
I married my best friend Jake on August 30th, 2014 in the Los
Angeles California temple. The gospel has blessed my life in so many ways, one
of which being that now I get to start my own eternal family. I have the support of my parents and extended family, as well as my husband, in my journey towards becoming a teacher.
Why Do I Want to Teach?
For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with
school. As a child in elementary school I was often reprimanded for rushing
through assignments and doing them improperly, writing my own stories when
I should be doing a math assignment, or simply not paying attention. At
parent-teacher conferences, my mom was always told that I was “very smart, but
she just does not try hard enough”. I was dubbed a slacker; a girl who does not
care about her education, and who never will. The only place in school where I
excelled was English. Grammar concepts were easy for me to pick up, and essays
or research papers were a breeze. I managed to graduate high school, with the
help of supportive teachers and patient parents who would pay for tutors or
pick me up after school late in the evening if I stayed for help.
Two years after I graduated high school, my mom started
receiving promptings to have me tested for a learning disability. After four
months of meeting with a psychologist, intelligence tests, and answering literally
hundreds of questions on my strengths and weaknesses in learning, I was
diagnosed with ADD. Through help from my doctor and beginning
to research my disability to better understand it, I began seeing a change in
how I viewed myself and my abilities, and education as a whole. Over a period
of one year, I went from a 2.6 GPA to achieving a perfect 4.0 my final semester
of community college, and I decided to pursue a career in teaching.
Through those years struggling to learn and keep up with my
classmates, not once did a teacher suggest that I had a learning disability, or
say anything regarding my abilities--teachers told my parents and I that I
lacked the proper motivation, or even simply saying that I was stupid or
incapable. Most teachers lack a knowledge or understand of learning
disabilities; signs to watch for in their students, things to be aware of, tips
for helping them to succeed, or ways to make the classroom environment one that
they can learn in more easily. Because of the experiences I've had struggling
through school, I know that there are hundreds and even thousands of other
students experiencing the same difficulties. No one should ever have to feel
too stupid to learn, and I plan on changing that.
I know that if my mom had not listened to the promptings
she received, I would not be at BYU-Idaho today, and I probably would not have
graduated community college and decided to go into a career as a teacher. I’m
so grateful for the promptings from the Spirit that we can receive on a daily
basis, because I know that they truly are from God and can affect our lives in
huge ways, should we choose to listen to them.
