In order for a teacher to be effective, they must efficiently teach integral material. Students trust their teacher to guide them down a path of relevant and important information. In order for a teacher to properly decide what topics should be taught and the best ways to teach them, they must first know the material themselves and have already gone through the learning experience. A teacher who does not know their material will ultimately teach incorrectly or inefficiently.

Demonstrates sound knowledge and understanding of the subject matter and the pedagogy it requires by consistently engaging students in learning experiences that enable them to acquire complex knowledge and subject-specific skills and vocabulary, such that they are able to make and assess evidence-based claims and arguments. (1)

As detailed in My Education, I have had extensive experience and interest in the technology and engineering fields allowing me to deeply understand simple and complex topics. I've always found joy in incorporate my current studies into my lessons and try to when I can. This excites my classes as they can directly see where my lessons and skills could lead and build up to in the future. That being said, I am able to create in-depth lessons with a strong and specific vocabulary quicker than I could without my background knowledge. Directly below are two examples of artifacts I made from my previous knowledge.

Even though I have strong background knowledge in engineering, I understand I still don’t know everything, even as a teacher. Daniel Dennett, an American philosopher, once said, "if I can’t explain something I’m doing to a group of bright undergraduates, I don’t really understand it myself". Sometimes I found myself in a situation where I could handle the topics I wanted to discuss myself, but I had no clue how to teach them. So, I had to research and practice my knowledge before class or before even before making a lesson plan in order to effectively teach a lesson. Directly below are two examples of when I needed to research and prepare before designing a lesson.