Autobiographical Essay

Autobiographical Essay

Danyal Smoldon

College of Western Idaho

Education 120: Foundations of Education

Doug Rapley

Spring 2023
Autobiographical Essay

Educational Background

The first school I attended was Snake River Elementary in Nampa Idaho. The school was

a one-story green and white brick building by the boys and girls club. Like every kindergartener I

was nervous but excited to be there, unlike every kindergartener on their first day I was yelled

at when I asked a teacher “where do Kindergarteners go” then I was told to read the board, not

knowing how to read, I cried. After that experience, I had many other fun memories from

elementary from, from making friends to throwing a pie at the principal. I went to East Valley

Middle School from 6th-8th grade, I learned many different things when I was there such as what

LDS is, what weed smells like, and how to stress out because of teachers and assignments. In

between 8th grade and freshmen year, the neighborhood I lived in all of my life switched school

districts from once attending the Nampa school district I was now in the Valley view school

district was supposed to attend Ridgeview High School, but I decided not to. I didn’t like the

people who were going to attend that school and I would be losing all of my friends. Instead of

attending Ridgeview, I opened-enrolled at Columbia High school in the Nampa School District.

This is where spent the last four years, making friends and enemies and attending football

games. Currently, I am attending the College of Western Idaho to become a Special Education

teacher.

As of spring 2023, I am in my second semester in college. I have completed thirteen

years in the public education system and graduated with my high school diploma in the spring

of 2022. Having only attended one full semester at college I have 23 credits. I plan on

completing what I need at CWI in 2024. After that, I want to attend BSU or ISU to further my
Autobiographical Essay

education in special education. When I graduate from a four-year university, I will hopefully

have a degree in special education and primary education in hopes to teach K-8.

I would like to think I was very diverse throughout my childhood. In elementary, I had

trouble reading and pronouncing specific sounds and words. I remember being pulled out of

class with this other teacher and we would play games like go-fish, but we would have to say

the word on the cards instead of numbers. I eventually got out of the program but I still have

issues pronouncing and reading some words. In high school, I was in different sports and

programs. I was in the marching band, marching the bass clarinet. In the band, we would travel

out of state to a competition, in total I went to 3 places, Washington and Lagoon twice. In my

junior year, we were supposed to go to Disney land be that got canceled because of Covid. I

also played basketball for the school all four years, speech and debate for two years where I got

to debate the best debate team in the state and lose to that team and I did track and field for

two years, I was a thrower which was fun because I got to hang out with my friends and be

around some nice and good coaches also, I didn’t have to run. During Junior year I took my first

art class, where I was able to learn new techniques and learn vocabulary used in art. In my

senior year, I was in an AP art class year I was able to do a mural and finish another mural for

someone else.

For the longest time I didn’t want to be a teacher, not because I disliked children, the

teachers I had, or because I wanted to be like a specific teacher but because it felt like the

occupation everyone wanted to do. I wanted to do something everyone else didn’t. For a while,

I thought about being an eye doctor and even a cosmetologist trying to get away from being a
Autobiographical Essay

teacher. By the end of my junior year, I needed to choose what I wanted to do. I threw out my

ideas of becoming an eye doctor and a cosmetologist and said I wanted to become a teacher,

but not any teacher, a special education teacher. Growing up I was in taekwondo, where I got

to teach different types of people, from adults to children to people with special needs. There I

was told I would make a great teacher; I loved working with the kids and the people who had

special needs because they were fun, and I had more patience than most of the other people at

the center. My first job came out of taekwondo, I was thirteen, and a parent saw how good I

was with her child and came up to me and asked if I was able to babysit her child who had

disabilities. I loved going to their house and watching him, from then on, I knew I would

eventually become a teacher just because of how much I liked teaching and helping others.

Work History Service and Extracurricular Activities

Growing up I was always doing extracurriculars. When I was four, I started soccer, at seven I

joined taekwondo, and in elementary I was in basketball. There was never a part of my life where I

wasn’t doing something. When I got to middle school I joined the band, did school basketball, was in

track and field, and did rec soccer. Then in high school I was always busy, from marching band to

basketball, taekwondo, speech and debate, track and field, and rec soccer, sometimes I surprised myself

when I got good grades. From each of these activities, I learned new things and got new experiences.

From taekwondo, I learned how to protect myself, and that is where I got my first job babysitting a five-

year-old boy who had behavioral problems and also had special needs. I learned many things about how

to be a good leader, to be a supportive teammate, I know that showing up early is important and shows

that I want to be there. Currently, I work at a developmental center called Meridian Developmental

Services, I got this job from a past friend whose mom owns the facility. There I am a DSP which stands
Autobiographical Essay

for a Direct Service Provider, there I run specific programs that are detailed to each individual that will

help them becomes more independent. I have to be a role model for the clients, so they can look up to

me on what to do and what not to do.

I have to be a role model for my clients, some are around my age most are much older than me.

At my place of employment, I am the youngest person there, out of both the clients and my co-workers.

With that being said it’s hard to be a role model or the person in charge. When people come in asking to

talk to someone and I go up to them I am one of the longest-working people at my work there people

usually ask if there is someone else they can talk to thinking I’m too young to know what they are going

to talk about. There are times when people think they can talk down to me and treat me as less, which I

believe is because of my age. From these experiences and from what I learned being part of so many

extracurriculars I learned how to stand up for myself when needed, how to work as a team but also get

stuff done, and how to have fun at the same time doing work. These characteristics have developed me

into a professional educator making me keep an eye out when others aren’t participating in the group or

when people aren’t being teamed players, I go up to them and tell them to let everyone participate in

the group. At work when we have to run programs, I try to make it fun, so it doesn’t seem like it just

works but they are playing games that work around what they have to do.

Currently, I work at MDS, I volunteer at a senior citizen center in Kuna to call Bingo numbers. I

also volunteer at Meridian Club House, which is a mostly free organization where people with disabilities

come and socialize, each week there are different activities to do some do require paying but most

activities are free. As of now, I help my high school speech and debate coach and judge for speech and

debate competitions.

These activities contributed to my development as a professional educator by knowing how to

act and what to say around different age groups. When I am volunteering at Meridian Club House I have
Autobiographical Essay

to watch what I say and do because I might trigger someone or I might be a bad role model and

someone that attends the clubhouse might take what I did or said to someone else and I could have a

change in getting fired for volunteering there and get fired from my job and any other job within the

special needs community. At Bingo it’s much more relaxed, I get to have more fun and talk about more

personal things with them than I could at the Club House. When I am judging speech and debate, I

learned to be relaxed with kids and not be so strict when I judge and to make them feel as relaxed as

possible, for them to feel like this is any other day and that they are not presenting me with anything. I

feel this partly because I know what they are going through, I was in the same place last year.

Ethical Reasoning in Education

We all know the stories of a teacher helping a student pass just because the teacher likes the

student, or the student is part of a sports team, and they need to pass that class to play in a game.

Throughout high school I was part of the basketball team, this is where I got to experience teammates

playing in a game even though we all know that they are failing most of their classes. Teachers faking

grades just so a student can play isn’t right for the other players on the team who keeps up their grades

and plays a sport or the student doesn’t play sports and the teacher helps them by faking their grade

isn’t right for the student in the class that tried hard in that class and put work and effort in when the

student was able just to pass because the teacher likes that student more than the others.

In Principle IV- Professional integrity, subpoint e. “Falsifying, deliberately misrepresenting, or

deliberately omitting information regarding the evaluation of students or personnel, including improper

administration of any standardized tests (changing test answers; copying or teaching identified test

items; unauthorized reading of the test to students, etc.)” Goes over how it’s unethical for teachers to

help students get ahead. There are many ways teachers can help teachers by either changing test scores

or giving the student unauthorized readings. This sort of idea is unethical because it shows favorites, it’s
Autobiographical Essay

unethical to have so many people try hard to get good grades, and learn with the provided materials.

With teachers helping students either because they are their favorite students or a student is in a sport

and needs a certain grade to be able to play, it’s not fair to the other students that tried hard to get

where they are.

Considerations for Choosing Education as a Career

I love working with others. When I was younger, I thought telling people what to do was fun.

Now that I am older, I don’t work with others just to feel a power trip. Helping people be the best they

can possibly be drives me. Knowing that I can help others achieve their goals makes me proud. Being a

teacher will give me the chance to help children achieve their goals, it will help me push others to best

the best person they can be. Having compassion, respect, and the ability to make kids comfortable with

me will help me as a teacher. I would like to known as the teacher who respects their students, shows

compassion when students are having a tough time, and the teacher that students comes in just to talk

with. Being a teacher will give me the chance to create a good working environment for students; my

class would be a place where kids will hopefully succeed, a place where students know they wouldn’t be

judged, and a class where they will be pushed to be their best.

Having the ability to give and earn respect, making kids feel comfortable, and showing

compassion. I believe that I could be a school counselor, being able to help kids through their problems,

showing compassion, and giving students a sense of value would be an amazing job to have. Though

there are some parts of being a counselor that can be tough, having the ability to make a good impact

on students will hopefully be worth the hard times. I have many skills that I don’t always share, the fact

that I am pretty good at painting makes me want to become a professional artist, and being in speech

and debate in high school made me want to become a lawyer. If I didn’t want to be a teacher I would

still work with others, either I would go to nursing school or I would go to cosmetology school. One way

or the other I want to work with others, I want to show people that they have value and I care for them.
Autobiographical Essay

Professional Goals

In the long term, I want to be a secondary special education teacher. Hopefully, I will be given an

opportunity to give speeches about special education and disabilities in general. To reach my goal I plan

to transfer to either BSU or ISU after I get my associates from CWI. I plan on graduating with a degree in

associate of arts, special education, and secondary education later on if I decide I don’t want to go into

secondary education then I would get my degree in primary education. To achieve my goals, at CWI I am

going to take 12-14 credits per semester and take a few classes during the summer to hopefully transfer

to either BSU or ISU by the fall of 2024. Once I get to university, I want to talk to my advisor and plan out

my next few years to see how long and what classes I should take to graduate. I want to get more

involved in the special needs community and help others in my free time. By the time I graduate from

university, I want my name to be out there and known for schools offering me a job.

In the short term, I am meeting with my advisor every month to stay on track with my plans. I

am going to work on days I don’t have school to hopefully build up my savings account to be able to

afford university. I want to finish the spring of 2023 semester off with mostly A’s to be able to keep my

scholarship. In the summer I am going to take a few classes to be able to graduate in the summer of

2024. By the fall of 2023, I plan to be taking a 14-credit semester followed by a 12-credit semester in the

spring then by the summer of 2024 I would only need to take one more class to graduate and transfer to

a university. My short-term goals will help me to reach my long-term goals.

Autobiographical Essay