Educational Autobiography Assignment

From Enville to Ivy Tech

Margaret Judy Jones

Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana

INTASC Standard, Description and Rationale

Standard #1 - Learner Development
The teacher candidate understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.

Abstract

            I had no preschool education, I grew up in west Tennessee at a time when there was no kindergarten or preschool offered to children. My elementary education was at a little three room red bricked school located in Enville, Tennessee. The school did not even have indoor plumbing until I was in the sixth grade. My dad would pick us up for lunch each day because there was no cafeteria. The school grades where one through eight so I did not attend middle school or junior high. High school was better in some way because there was a cafeteria, indoor plumbing, and central heat but there was no air conditioning. In spite of all the disadvantage I develop a love of learning even thought I never felt comfortable enough to speak up in class. When I enrolled at Ivy Tech everything I learn at that little red school house and in high school came back to me.

Elementary Education

            I was completely unprepared for my first day of school. I was scared because I had never had any preschool. Until that point my mother was my only teacher. I had new dress and book satchel, book bags where not popular in the middle 1950s when I started to school. My dad took me to school along with my older sister. I already had met the teacher but on the first day I was given a shot. I do not remember what kind of shot it was but I sat on the doctor’s lap when he gave me the shot. I received all of my shots at school. I think that was common in west Tennessee in the 1950. Many people did not go to town very often, I grew up in a country and going to the schools was the government vaccinating the children in Tennessee. 

Six, Seventh, and Eight Grades

            My six, seventh, and eight grade teacher, Mrs. Alma Young, would scare the class each morning when she talked about the cold war and the Cuban missile crises. I was worried that Enville would be bombed at any time.  But Mrs. Young would also talk about positive subjects like John Glen being the first man to orbit the earth in 1962. She also gave talks on Mrs. Kennedy the first lady at the time. Mrs. Young admired Mrs. Kennedy’s style and grace and how she was restoring the White House into a place the nation could be proud of. This helped me to be interested in things that were going on in the world.  I have three or four books in my personal library about Mrs. Kennedy. I have even read a book about Nikita Khrushchev and Russian history. The sixth, seventh, and eight grade were sort of like middle school or junior high because we were treated different than the younger kids.

High School

            High school was also a big change for me. I had to change classes, ride a crowded bus several miles each morning and what a person wore become more important. I did not really enjoy the ninth and tenth grades but I really enjoyed my junior and senior years in high school. I never had much self-confidence but I wanted a family therefore I got married soon after I graduated.

Ivy Tech

            After my husband died in 2008 I enrolled at Ivy Tech Community College. I had time to follow my dreams. One dream was to become a published author and I accomplished that by being published in New Voices and my hometown newspaper, The Chester County Independent, and the Indy Star. I have also been in several art shows.  I have earned an associate degree in Human Services, Fine Arts, and also in Liberal Arts from Ivy Tech. All of these degrees are important to me and I felt that the best way to use everything I have learn at Ivy Tech is to become a teacher. My goal is to become a substitute teacher.

Conclusion

            I would not take anything for my time at Enville in the little three room school house. I have written about that experience many times. My first published essay was about that school house. That school was the reason I wanted to become a writer and teacher and also the reason I always want to keep learning. High school also was interesting and in some ways easier that my elementary education. My world literature class in high school also inspired me to want to write and be creative. Everything I learned will help me in my teaching career.