When I was in high school, pursuing the IB Diploma, I often found myself in the position of assisting my classmates with their work, particularly in the field of history. History had always been a passion of mine - ever since I was a boy and I was brought to the battlefield at Gettysburg I had deep thirst to know about the accomplishments and tragedies of the past - and I relished any chance I had to share that love with others. So, while I did well in all subjects, history was and always had been my especial favorite (sadly, not too many students need extra tutoring in history, alas).
Truman State's MAE program gave me the opportunity to translate that love of history to the classroom, giving me the teaching competencies to share it with students on a wide scale. The intense program gave me hundreds of hours of experience in the classroom, including many hours of hands on teaching and prep work, access to veteran instructors of all disciplines, and finally culminated in a six-month teaching internship at Lee's Summit West High School.

I was fortunate in that I have the native abilities and personal characteristics for the job. I'm an apt public speaker and I keep calm under pressure - at Truman this led to my being elected to organize and run a large, multi-day athletic/social event involving hundreds of students, "HvZ". It also trained my organizational and management abilities, as I needed to prepare and execute programs that involved literally hundreds of my fellow college students. I was good at this, and became a prominent voice online instructing other colleges in running the event. This skill translated well into the classroom, I found, as I student-taught during the MAE. Teachers need to keep cool under pressure, need to manage a large class of students, and need to hold their interests through a lesson. They need good planning and organizational skills. They need to have a love of their subjects. Between my own extracurricular activities and my training, I have all of these competencies.