My reason for pursuing graduate study is to obtain a single subject credential to teach math to middle school and high school students. Being a teacher has always been a life long dream of mine for as long as I can remember. Growing up in Vietnam as a girl in a family of seven kids with neither of my parents believing in education , schooling was a luxury, especially for me as I was needed more at home to help out with house chores. I strugged the first few years in school, but I overcame many of the difficulties and started to recognize the importance of education. Some time during those school years, my teachers taught me to think and dream, dreaming of a better future for me and thinking of how education could help make the world a better place.
From then on, I tried to help out my parents more with chores at home so that they would allowed me to continue with school. As the years went by, I excelled in school and started to think of becoming a teacher when I grew up. However, immigrating to this country and learning English for the first time at seventeen limited my career choices. I had to choose a career that allowed me to successfully make a living without needing too much English. I used my excellent math skills to become a computer engineer. After two decades of working as a computer engineer, I was longing for a change. With uncertainty of what change I wanted to make, I took time off to spend with my two children. While staying at home, I volunteered in my children's classrooms to help out. Being in the classroom helped me realize that I really enjoyed working with kids. It also brought back my desire to become a teacher. After being in the United States for more than two decades, my English has improved tremendously, so becoming a teacher would be a real possibility now.
To try out in teaching, I became a substitute teacher, and I have been teaching on average three days a week. Although I teach classes from kindergarten through eight grade, I find that it's much more rewarding to teach math to eight grade students. After two and a half years of doing substitute teaching, I know by heart that I want to be a full time math teacher. With my organizational and planning skills, ability of overcoming challenges, and childhood experiences, I sincerely believe that I would be a good teacher. Furthermore, I feel that our country needs more scientists and engineers for us to be able to compete in today global economy. With my engineering background by education and experiences, I know that I can use computers application to teach math. Last but not least, math has always been one of my favorite subjects. I was fortunate enough to be inspired by many of my math teachers, so I want to become a teacher and hope to inspire students to like math as much as I do.
From then on, I tried to help out my parents more with chores at home so that they would allowed me to continue with school. As the years went by, I excelled in school and started to think of becoming a teacher when I grew up. However, immigrating to this country and learning English for the first time at seventeen limited my career choices. I had to choose a career that allowed me to successfully make a living without needing too much English. I used my excellent math skills to become a computer engineer. After two decades of working as a computer engineer, I was longing for a change. With uncertainty of what change I wanted to make, I took time off to spend with my two children. While staying at home, I volunteered in my children's classrooms to help out. Being in the classroom helped me realize that I really enjoyed working with kids. It also brought back my desire to become a teacher. After being in the United States for more than two decades, my English has improved tremendously, so becoming a teacher would be a real possibility now.
To try out in teaching, I became a substitute teacher, and I have been teaching on average three days a week. Although I teach classes from kindergarten through eight grade, I find that it's much more rewarding to teach math to eight grade students. After two and a half years of doing substitute teaching, I know by heart that I want to be a full time math teacher. With my organizational and planning skills, ability of overcoming challenges, and childhood experiences, I sincerely believe that I would be a good teacher. Furthermore, I feel that our country needs more scientists and engineers for us to be able to compete in today global economy. With my engineering background by education and experiences, I know that I can use computers application to teach math. Last but not least, math has always been one of my favorite subjects. I was fortunate enough to be inspired by many of my math teachers, so I want to become a teacher and hope to inspire students to like math as much as I do.