Passageway of Education

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Running Head: PASSAGEWAY OF EDUCATION 1

Passageway of Education

Ashley Jordan

Ivy Tech Community-College


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PASSAGEWAY OF EDUCATION

INTASC Standards for Beginning Teachers

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: January 22, 2013

Course: Education 101

Brief Description: For this assignment, I will describe my educational upbringing from

elementary school to middle school to my high school years and gain a better understanding of

how I develop and grew as a learner throughout my secondary school years. In this lesson plan, I

discussed my major events for my schooling. Given this standard I examined cognitive,

linguistic, social, emotional and even physical areas where I grew from my experiences.

Rationale: To document my Standard #1, learner development, I included specific inspirations

to be as I grew, develop and learned from my schooling. This assignment allowed me to recollect

through my schooling to find my initial want to become a teacher while learning from my

educational years. My personal insight of myself is expressed clearly in this paper in order to

appeal to standard number one.


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Introduction

Some students may dread going to school and may just want to attend class to get to see

their friends, but for me school was an outlet; I have always attempted to do well in school to

make myself happy. My name is Ashley Jordan and even though I was born in Indianapolis I

have not always stayed in one school district or community, actually the exact opposite happened

to me I tended to move around from school to school throughout my first thirteen years of

schooling. My pathway through my elementary, middle school, and high school years of being a

student was a challenging journey for me but, I learned from my journey.

Major Event 1

I went from school to school all throughout my elementary years. In kindergarten, I

attended at least five different elementary schools before I finally ended up at Pleasant Run

Elementary School on the eastside of Indianapolis; I attended this school the rest of kindergarten

while I lived at my grandparents house. In first grade my mother had us move in with the person

she was dating which meant another change for me; I went to IPS number ninety-three. Then, in

second grade I had to attend a school that was closer to where I lived, this was school IPS ninety-

four. From second grade up until fifth grade a stayed at school ninety- four, this was the first

school that I finally felt as if I was welcome and that I didnt have to make new friends out every

year. School ninety- four was where I experienced meeting my first influential teacher, Mrs.

Hordge, which made me believe that maybe one day I too wanted to be an elementary school

educator. From then on my dream was to become an elementary school teacher just as my third

grade teacher inspired me to be. As elementary school was coming to an end I experienced

anxiety about having to which schools again, since I had grown so comfortable in staying in one

school for a while.


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Major Event 2

Middle school was another obstacle I had to face to realize that I needed to learn more

about myself and I did just that during middle school. For about three quarters of my sixth grade

year I attended Creston Middle School where I met another teacher that I admired. My sixth

grade English teacher, Mrs. Grady, not only became a friend to me outside of class but she

showed back up later on in my life, she taught me that if you really want something just go for it

and I wanted to help children. The last quarter of my sixth grade year I went back to an IPS

school which was John Marshall Middle School, there at first I felt singled out because I was one

of two white kids in the entire school. At John Marshall I learned that even though I was one of

the two white kids that attended that school that didnt mean that people that were African-

American or Hispanic were terrible people; in fact, I learned that I actually got along with others

of color more than with others of the same race.

When seventh grade came along my entire schooling as I knew it would change. I went

from being the only white kid in school to only seeing five African- Americans or people of

colors at Custer Baker Middle School. I would have to say this was probably the largest culture

shock I have went through I went from going to school with people of all colors and people that

were from the same area as me to a school were all the students lived in the country and

predominantly had no idea what Indianapolis was comparable to. I continue on in my eighth

grade year at Custer Baker and still had to learn how to adjust to an environment I was severely

uncomforted in; as I came to realize I did no enjoy going to a school that had absolutely no

diversity I actually quite hated the whole idea of being in that town. Once again as middle school

drew to a close I found that same anxiety that I had just before starting middle school but this

time it was worse I was going to start high school.


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Major Event 3

Freshman year hit me as if time had just flown by and before I knew it I was again in the

lowest grade level in a school again. I attended Franklin Community High School from my

freshman year up until my junior year of high school. Even though my hatred for Franklin

schools grew some good did come from me attending the high school. A familiar face reappeared

in my life; Mrs. Grady my sixth grade teacher was now a librarian at the high school I

automatically became involved in helping with the errands or being an assistant for the library.

Freshman year I also met probably my all-time most adored teacher, Mrs. Ferris, she was the

person that related to me the most you understood how hard my personal life at home was and

she would always encourage me to finish high school and go on to college not just so I could

better myself but so I could get myself out of the situation at home that I hated so much. My

sophomore year of high school came and I found another teacher that I could lean on for advice,

Mrs. Keyser, she was similar to Mrs. Ferris in the sense that she listened and tried to help me but

she also offered something to me that no other teacher had per say.

I finally had a chance to teacher in front of a class; Mrs. Keyser was gone for a few days

and the substitute teacher did not know how to do algebra so it was up to me to teach a group of

freshman a lesson or two. From this experience I learned that even though I was scared to get up

in front of the class I got over it and I really enjoyed teaching a class something new. I decided

once I was done with school my junior year of high school it was time for me to go back to my

roots and return to my side of town to attend my senior year of high school at Warren Central

High School. Mostly, sticking to my books at Warren I tended to excel in all of my class and

several teachers were surprised at my work ethic, they often asked me what I wanted to do or

what my major would be and I told them either I want to be a pediatrician or an elementary


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school teacher; I just wanted a career that dealt with helping children. I finished my high school

career and graduated from Warren Central High School in the top seven percent of my class;

even though I was not the smartest person in school I still held my personal standards for doing

well in school very high.

Conclusion

Throughout, the course of elementary, middle, and high school I met some significant

educators while also learning about myself. In elementary school Mrs. Hordge my third grade

teacher was the first passion to show me her passion for teaching I in turn from then on wanted a

career where I would work with children everyday so I too wanted to become a teacher. The

diversity in elementary school was very common they were children of all different backgrounds

and cultures and it was there that I found that it was alright to be from a unlike upbringing. When

it came time for sixth grade I attended Creston Middle School at first meeting Mrs. Grady whom

taught me that it is best to follow your dream. I experienced a major culture shock when it came

to middle school; I ended up going to John Marshall Middle School where I was the only white

female in the school but learned that I was surprisingly comfortable or at home if you will with

my environment. When seventh grade came I moved to a school that was the complete opposite

everyone was not of color they were all the same race as me and as time went on I realized that I

missed the diversity that I had grew up in. My first two years of high school was an adjustment

for me but I once again met some wonderful educators, Mrs. Ferris and Mrs. Keyser taught me

that teachers really do care about their students and that if I needed someone to talk to they were

both there they also renounced my love for teaching. Not wanting to graduate in a community I

was uncomfortable in I returned to warren township again in an environment where I was

entirely at home, I went on to finish well in my class ranking and I graduated from Warren


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Central High School with classmates that were from diverse backgrounds. Hopefully, one day I

too will become a teacher just as the several educators have encouraged me to become.

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Passageway of Education