Self-Study

Hello, my name is Charlie Standifer and I’m currently enrolled at NC State University in the MAT program. The MAT program is designed to help career changers successfully move into the teaching profession. I have a BS in mechanical engineering from NC State and I’ve been working in manufacturing for the past ten years. The top five reasons for making the switch from engineering to teaching are:

1. I want to make a difference with America’s youth.
2. I want to coach football.
3. I want to have a fulfilling career.
4. I like the flexibility and stability of the teaching profession. There are career opportunities everywhere in the world and there is always a high demand.
5. I’m really looking forward to the schedule of a high school teacher. The schedule allows personal and professional development.

I really think the primary influence on the above points is my previous career in engineering. I enjoyed my work but there was hollowness to it. I really never felt that my job made a difference. I had a solid career, but a lot of days, it was just a job I did to get a paycheck.

It would be absurd to say that my own experiences as a student don’t affect my image of teachers and the teaching profession. I was lucky in my education. I went to high quality schools that fostered a strong learning environment. Since I’m looking at becoming a high school teacher, I’ll narrow my focus to critical moments from that time.

1. My high school football coach, who was also my position coach, was the most influential teacher to me in high school. I was an above average student, so I never really had to work hard to succeed. Football was different. This coach pushed me to be better than I expected. I think that kind of defines what I hope to accomplish as a teacher. I want to help students be better than the expectations they have for themselves.
2. Another football coach was the instructor for my first AP class, US History. I’m a fan of history, but I think my effort level was higher in this class because the teacher was a coach. I was concerned that disappointing him in the classroom would cross over to the football field. I think the idea that a coach can be a more effective teacher because he is a coach is something that I’m still holding on too.
3. My high school chemistry teacher was a blast. He did chemistry the right way. Everything was practical and involved. We had tons of labs and demonstrations in that class. He created a learning environment that I hope to recreate.
4. I guess a negative experience is warranted. My high school physics teacher was an older gentleman. He was a retiree, who taught this one class because the regular staff had scheduling conflicts. He was very much an “old style” teacher. Class was very boring, with the majority of the class spent watching him work his way through the book. It definitely was the “giver of knowledge” model of teaching.
5. I did have a separate incident with this same physics teacher a few years later. I returned home from college one weekend to visit my old high school for a football game. I ran into him in the crowd and we had a good conversation about where I was and what I was doing. This was probably the first time someone told me they wished I’d go into teaching.

No decision is made in a vacuum. Who you are and who you are around influence your decisions. I really think my very modest childhood steered me away from teaching. I was really worried about money. Also I am the only member of my family to attend college, so there was a pressure to be successful, and success was solely defined by pay.

I also think gender roles played a part in my not becoming a teacher the first time around. My father was very much a manly man. He was a mechanic and a carpenter, so to me, a man’s job needed to be one where he made/fixed things and used his hands. I think this really pushed me subconsciously toward mechanical engineering. It seemed like the manliest discipline.

Obviously my status in this program suggests that things have changed for me. As you get out into the world and work, you realize what’s important to you and what isn’t. I now understand that income isn’t a good measure of happiness. I’ve also seen the need in schools and realize that the most important thing you can make is a difference.

I come from a family of simple means. I’ve improved my social standing primarily through my education. Education as an uplifting tool is a truth in my life. I think that’s a big part of why I’m becoming a teacher. It’s one of the few tools that can truly change people’s lives. That’s something I want to help enable.

I didn’t think about research as part of the teaching process, at least initially. It seems to me that when we talk about research in this class, we are talking about professional reflection and development. The idea of continual observation and improvement of teaching techniques definitely seems to be part of the teaching process. We always talk about creating a learning environment in the classroom and being co-learners with our students. I think the research is just the teacher actively participating in the learning process.

I don’t think anyone goes into teaching to be a bad or average teacher. We all want to be highly effective at getting through to our students. So I think every teacher owes it to themselves to really reflect on what they do and how effective it is at getting through to student. I imagine being a bad teacher is more stressful than being a good teacher, especially if you really care about the students.

So the question is do you want to continue to improve yourself and your teaching abilities or not. If you do, then you want to look at this as becoming a teacher/researcher. So of course I want to be a teacher/researcher. I really can’t imagine answering otherwise. As I said in the beginning, I want to make a difference; I don’t think that’s possible without being a high level teacher.