In our blog, we like to highlight the real experience of participants in our programs. Today, you get to hear from Michelle Soper, a resident of cohort eight. This blog has been transcribed from an AmeriCorps Great Stories assignment written by Michelle Soper, cohort eight teacher resident at the Educator Academy. This has been formatted to fit a blog. All edits that have been made are for legibility purposes only.
“For me, life and the road to becoming a teacher merged in Kansas City. I had worked in education off and on for over two decades. I was a substitute teacher, paraprofessional, and recovery room interventionist. The years I didn’t spend working with students, I spent focusing on raising my own children. No matter where I moved, how many years passed, or what else moved to take my time and attention—I was always drawn back to working with students.
I had often contemplated becoming a teacher. Even as I pursued my bachelor’s degree in mass media, I often wondered if I was truly on my intended path. Yes, journalism, film, and broadcasting pulled at my hopes and dreams. However, even while pursuing my degree, I never wandered far from schools and students as I worked as a substitute teacher when I didn’t have class.
Fast forward in time, and my children have become teenagers. With their growing independence came a new phase of life for me. I found myself with the time and energy to follow other passions and paths—including those I had never fully explored or committed to previously. Thus, I decided to pursue earning my teacher’s certificate with a sense of gusto that I had never experienced before. Enter The Educator Academy and AmeriCorps.
Having explored several options, I found that The EA’s core values and commitment to placing teachers in underserved schools spoke to me on a deep level. I wanted to teach but also to give back to my community and the city I had called home for the past two decades. AmeriCorps mirrored the core values and desire to give back to the community that I saw in The Educator Academy. So, working with them on my journey to becoming a certified teacher was the [perfect] fit. This partnership, [which] I had been searching for, gave me enough of a nudge to go back to school in order to become the teacher I always knew deep down that I wanted to be.
I am now [finished with the initial] residency year with The EA, and as an AmeriCorps member serving their school community, I finally feel like I am becoming the teacher I was meant to be.
Does Michelle’s story sound similar to your own story? If you have found yourself circling the education field, but haven’t yet taken the leap to become a certified teacher, talk to one of our team members about our certification program or take our quiz to find the program that is the best fit for you.
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