Intro. Blog Post

Hello everyone!

So this is my first time blogging anything in general, so I am trying to get used to writing in this sort of context. However, I feel that this experience will prove to be very beneficial in the future. For these blogs in particular, I will obviously be talking about my experiences in my education classes here at Whitewater University. I am really looking forward to being able to take this time to reflect on the subject-material that I will be learning throughout the semester, and I hope that I can make some thought-provoking contentions in these blogs as well.

So who am I? Well, my name is Preston Boudreaux, and I am from Beloit, Wisconsin. I grew up with a loving family, that consisted of my three brothers(Tanner, Graham, and Camden), and my parents(Pam and Andre). I am currently studying to be a high school math teacher here at UW-Whitewater, and I hope to teach math at the high school level. So when and how did I start thinking about becoming a teacher? I think I first started becoming interested with the idea of teaching when I was a junior in high school. My mom, who was working in schools at the time, was constantly telling me about all of the benefits of being a teacher, such as: holidays off, summers off, health insurance, and being a positive influence on children. This sparked my first interest in pursuing education as an occupation. I had also taken a variety of math classes before this year, and found myself excelling in the area of mathematics. Math has just been something I have always been something that I could understand and do well at. I remember friends sometimes coming to me for help on their math homework. Since I am a person who really enjoys helping other people, I was more than happy to try and help them in anyway I could. After I was done helping someone, I often times felt that I was able to present the material in a way which helped bring more understanding of math concepts among some of my friends. Knowing that I was able to help someone else understand more about math, brought me joy. So, when it had come time to what occupation I should go into, I thought to myself, “I enjoy helping people with math. So, why not do it for a living?” That was probably the first time that I had accepted the idea of becoming a teacher one day, which is why I am here at Whitewater today. I am really not aware of any other influences that brought me here to pursue a teaching a degree, however. I had some fairly exceptional teachers growing up, as well as some pretty mediocre ones as well. However, there was never really one specific teacher that made me want to become a teacher. I think I just chose this occupation out of personal interest. I also have seen how many people in high school struggle with math, and I hope that I can help bring more understanding to students in this pretty difficult field of education. I just really want to help be a positive influence on children through teaching, during a very influential time of their lives.

I really hoped that you enjoyed learning more about me, why I decided to pursue teaching, and maybe learned something else about yourself as well. I am looking forward to what this semester has in store.

Thanks for reading!

Preston