Entry #1

I went to a small high school, that included 9th through 12th graders. As a total the high school population rounded out to be about 350 students. For me, coming from a small rural area, I think there are many opportunities I've missed out on. Many of the neighboring schools and communities knew each other as well as everyone's business. I never got the chance to meet new people everyday, especially people of different culture.

With that background known, you can just about imagine how close knit our community was. I had many friends, many from multiple groups. But a select few from my sports teams. I was involved in all of the sports our high school offered as well as the majority of our clubs and groups. So I stayed pretty busy and had multiple friend connections. Being involved in art made my life even more interesting. This was my way of escaping structure and the hectic everyday responsibilities. Although I greatly enjoyed participating in my other activities, I used art as my calm escape.

I think my past experiences in high school brings out my fear of teaching high schoolers. I witinessed my art teacher struggle some days, and I've seen her be forced into someone she wasn't as times as well. She was a great teacher, and as much as I could I tried to convince other students not to be so judgmental and pesismistic about art or the class structure. This was evident in multiple other classes, and seeing the teachers deal with attitudes, laziness, and tons of drama was a bit intimidating.

In a way these experiences have brought a strength in me forward as well as many nervous thoughts. But I think my strength is thinking I can change this way of teaching and managing a classroom, because I'm younger I know what they are involved in and I'm still fresh with their ideas. This also creates a slight problem in the fact I am younger, will they listen to me since I am that much younger? There are many things to be nervous about, it's just a matter of how you handle the situations. I think I will just be strong and confident, trying not to let things bother me to much. Overall I'm excited but a bit nervous mainly for the obstacles that await me, but I'm ready to experience them.