A few days after graduating from TPP in June 2017, I was able to attend my 8th graders' graduation at St. Paul's School in Princeton, where I student-taught. It was great to celebrate that moment with them and wish them well as they move on to high school. Then, 3 days after that, I began teaching at the Get the Edge summer camp run by the high school I attended, where I also am now employed as a math teacher.
I am teaching at St. Edward High School, a suburban Catholic all-boys college-preparatory high school in Lakewood, OH. It is also my alma mater. I have worked there every summer with the IT department since graduating high school in 2012, and now I've returned full-time as a teacher teaching Algebra 2 and Honors Algebra 2 to grades 9-11. In addition to teaching, I also assist with my school's marching band program and am a moderator of the Robotics team (FIRST Team #2172).
Although it is nice to return to a place so familiar to me where I already know nearly everyone and nearly everyone knows me, it has been very, very busy. I spend nearly all my time outside of school either planning lessons, grading, or making materials. But as I'm settling into it a little, I think things are beginning to calm down a bit.
Teaching is a challenge; my students challenge me to make the material motivating and relevant to them and sometimes resist the ways I try to present new material. But this is a challenge I accept and one that I know will help me to improve my craft as a teacher throughout this first year and beyond. I'm doing my best to challenge the students while still being responsive to their feedback so that they get the best learning experience that they can. The other teachers and administration at my school are very supportive and truly like a family. Thus, they are there to support me whenever I need it as I go through my first year.
I’ve had the opportunity to do some tutoring and it reminded me of all the things I enjoy about teaching (and how tutoring doesn't deal with the stuff I didn't like as much, like grading). It spurred me to begin looking for more opportunities to tutor. In 2020 I started my tutoring business, and have a website at https://mattsmithtutoring.com. I still feel like an educator at heart after all.