Discovering Teaching as a Profession
Austin Passmore
About My Mentorship
When I become an adult, I wish to have a career as a mathematics educator, mainly a mathematics
professor. For my mentorship, I travel to Chestatee Academy for one class period and am mentored
by a math teacher there. At my mentorship, I get to do everything a student teacher gets to do, from
grading to teaching to one-on-one tutoring. Through this program, I have been able to experience a
career opportunity that most high school students do not get to, and I am allowed to explore my
passion for math and my passion for teaching. After being a part of this program for almost a year,
I have found that I am excited to go to my mentorship everyday, and that being a teacher is more fun
than I have ever thought it would be!
My Mentor:
Betsy Brooksher is a 7th grade gifted mathematics teacher at Chestatee Academy. She has been teaching for 11 years, 6 of which have been at Chestatee Academy. She is currently obtaining a Masters in Secondary Education through Piedmont College.
Betsy Brooksher was my mathematics teacher when I was in seventh grade. She was the teacher who really made me passionate about math, and she challenged me with brain teasers and math puzzles. She is one of the best teachers I have had, and she was able to be to make math fun for every student in my class. Because of this, she became my inspiration to become a mathematics teacher. Luckily, through the Honors Mentorship Program, I have been able to student teach with a person who is as passionate about math as I am and have been able to experience what being a teacher is like.
What I do:
I have been given a lot of freedom at my mentorship. Mrs. Brooksher has allowed me to be an extra tool for her. Whenever she is busy with other work or with school, she lets me walk around the classroom and help the students with their work. When she is teaching, I get to grade quizzes while observing skills that make her such an effective teacher. Something different that I was allowed to do for my second year was to see what teaching is like during a planning period. This allowed me to sit on meetings, such as weekly 7th Grade Math Department meetings.
She also lets me do a task that is perfect for me. The high school teachers asked the middle school teachers to find a way to improve problem solving skills in middle school students. Mrs. Brooksher gave this challenge to me, and my solution was brain teasers. Most every Friday, I am in charge of the class for about 15 minutes. During that time, I give the class a brain teaser and answer their questions about it. All the students have a lot of fun with it, and they race to see who can get the answer first. Even Mrs. Brooksher has fun solving them!
My Blog:
Click here to access my blog from my first year with my mentorship. Click here to access my blog from my second year. These blogs contain weekly entries about my experience in my mentorship, my feelings about the career I wish to have, my research, and my outlook on my future!
Click above to challenge your mind!
Celebrating my acceptance to Georgia Tech with the students.