My first initial experience with teaching came when I began
coaching swimming and teaching swimming lessons in high
school, a job I continued throughout college. I loved seeing
the look on a child's face (and their parents') when he or
she learned to swim or mastered a new stroke or did well in
a race. I realized I was good at teaching children to swim
and I thought I could carry over some of tactics that were
successful in teaching swimming to teaching in the
classroom.

Of course teaching history is different from teaching
swimming, but I still rely on a lot of patience and realize
that students learn differently and what works for one
student will not work for everyone. As a history teacher, I
view my job as showing students that history is relevant to
their lives. So many students come to college hating
history; they think it is boring and irrelevant. If I can
show them that many events or policies in place today are a
result of the past, then I can usually arouse their
interest. I also want students to realize that history is
not a series of unconnected events and if at the end of the
semester they are able to show how certain events or people
are connected to a broader theme, then I have succeeded as a
teacher.

For me it is important for students to be comfortable in my classroom and feel like they can approach me with any question, knowing that I will try my best to be helpful and available. Because students come into my classes at different levels in their college careers and at different writing skill levels, I keep in mind that some students may feel ill prepared and I try to alleviate any fears as early as possible in the semester. When I first started teaching I lived in fear that students would ask me a question I couldn't answer. While I now feel comfortable answering honestly if I don't know something, that discomfort has also motivated me to be organized and prepared for class and to stay up to date in my field.