My Educational Experience

I believe I am very lucky to have the educational experiences I have had because I have always loved school and I know unfortunately that is not the case for many people. I went through the public schooling system in Ames, Iowa for my K-12 education and then continued my university education in Ames as well. I think Ames would best described as a suburban school district. The population in Ames is around 60,000 when Iowa State is in session and lowers significantly when college students go home for breaks or over the summer. Education is a priority in Ames and the districts prides itself on continuously being one of the best school districts in Iowa. Ames High School was even named the best public school in the state this past year. Because

I had the opportunity to attend school with people with different race and ethnicities, as well as from a variety of economic backgrounds. This aided in my education because students were able to bring their experiences into the classroom and help start discussions. I remember during second grade we had a student transfer from another country and their parents came in to talk about it with us, show us items from where they lived before, and even read a book about it so that we could understand a little bit about the student’s culture and discuss it with them. This and many other opportunities helped me to understand the world because I learned there are communities outside of Ames, Iowa and that viewpoints, rules, cultures, etc. are different everywhere and that is something to celebrate and something we should always strive to learn more about. I love that I had opportunities like that growing up and it is part of what made me love school. I was always learning something new. While we did have many opportunities to learn about diversity, our school district was still primarily white, so the actual population of students attending the school could be much more diverse. Religion and sexuality were not something that were regularly discussed in our school district, but I do know that there were clubs in the high school centered around both (examples are morning prayer groups for religion,

I loved going to school as a kid. There was a time where I woke up with a stomachache and 102-degree fever but I still tried to fake that I felt well so my mom would let me go to school. This is because school always felt like a big family that I got to hang out and learn with for seven hours every day. Ames is the type of school district I would like to work in someday. A district where education is valued, I will have the materials needed to do my job, and the school runs on the principal that you are a community. My education at Ames made such a positive impact on my life that it sparked an interest in teaching and inspired me to go back to school to get my teaching