This blog is a practice exercise for the course EDM 510 at the University of South Alabama.
Hello classmates, my name is John Corley. I am currently enjoying my second career teaching high school mathematics. The biggest chunk of my working years before that was as Sr. R&D Scientist in the paper chemistry group at International Paper. Now, as a teacher, I sometimes find myself feeling frustrated by lack of formal training in education, so I am enrolled in the Master of Secondary Mathematics Education program.
I would like to talk to students more about their future. I have been able to reach only a very few students and learn about their dreams and aspirations and, sometimes, I feel that I have genuinely been able to help them. Most students sit through class and appear to have little interest or no idea at all about what happens to them after they graduate. When I get a chance to talk to a student individually, I always ask what they want to do. The most common response is no response at all.
Not all of you teach high school, but every single one of you was a teenager and high school student at one time. What were your thoughts about your future then? If you didn't open those thoughts to your parents or teachers, why not? If you feel regret that no one helped you formulate plans for yourself, what form would that help have taken if you had gotten it?
