How did you get into the field of education?
I love learning – actually, I LOVE learning. When I was in fifth grade, I particularly enjoyed studying early American history and I thought it would be fun to help other kids get excited about American history and learning in general. I knew then that I wanted to be a fifth grade teacher. However, I grew up hearing my dad’s story about his own career path and it gave me pause. When my father was 12, he decided to be a lawyer. He never thought about it after that – he knew what he wanted to be and that was that. It wasn’t until his second year of law school that he realized he was in the wrong field. While he ultimately found an extremely fulfilling profession, he made sure that my sister and I held off on choosing our career paths until we were older.
Throughout high school and college I held a number of internships in other fields, and I also babysat, worked as a camp counselor, and was an assistant teacher in my synagogue’s religious school. It was the work with kids that was most inspiring, most engaging, and most fulfilling to me. So, when it came time to select a college, I found one where I could choose any major I wished and minor in teacher preparation, earning my teaching credential by the time I graduated. As senior year rolled around, I continued to explore opportunities outside of education, but my heart led me right to the classroom. I started my teaching career as a fourth grade associate teacher in a K-12 independent school in Manhattan. There, I received exceptional mentoring and encouragement to begin work towards a master’s degree in education. The rest, as they say, is history.
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