During the internship project, we were instructed to sit down with our mentors and interview them about their careers and ask them more about their roles and what advice they could give us in the future. These are the responses I gathered.
Growing up Mrs Rye wanted to be a psychiatrist, and she attended SDSU in Psychology. In her second year at SDSU, she switched majors and started studying Liberal Studies and got her master's in Education. After she graduated she took a summer program where she would teach during the school year and during the summer she would attend classes to reach her master's degree for 5 years.
"Teaching has been very beneficial for me and my family... When I have time off, my kids have time off."
Mrs. Rye stated that she would do everything all over again just how it was while she was studying Liberal Studies because she got "the most amount of education" in the "least amount of time".
Mrs. Rye attended Crawford High School growing up, while she was there she said she didn't like it, especially because it felt rundown and was just not a good high school and didn't give that many opportunities like normal schools would've. While she was there however there was one teacher that was a real highlight, that teacher was Mr. Brewer. Mr Brewer was a super funny, accepting teacher with amazing teacher skills and taught a class where students would help make the Yearbook. Mrs Rye states that "Mr. Brewer just really felt like a breath of fresh air."
Seeing the kids grow & watching them learn more things & and turn into independent and competent learners and gain that sense of self advocacy.
Before Benchley, Mrs. Rye taught at Central Elementary for 5 years while pursuing her master's degree and after that, she taught at Hurdy Elementary for another 5 before finally going to and staying at Benchley. She loves Benchley's supportive and involved community, compared to her other schools, and likes where she is right now.
"Differentiating"
The work for Mrs. Rye can at times be overwhelming, she has mentioned how she feels a constant amount of stress lingering constantly, and the effort of having to motivate unmotivated kids, "trying to get the kids to go up to that step to gain 'Independence' "
For the most part, Mrs. Rye does feel successful with her position, she does have some hiccups here and there but she feels successful at the end of the day. "At the end of the day, you can look back and see how far you've made it with the kids"
Mrs. Rye has stated that she did everything perfectly for her education by becoming a teacher, by the time she was a Tenure, she was done with all of her college education and pretty much was all set for the rest of her teaching career. She had all the qualifications she needed to be a teacher very quickly.
If you choose to seek education as a career path, make sure you teach something you truly enjoy, and make sure to run with it.