EPT
I was fortunate enough to know what I wanted to do in life at a very young age. I had always been interested in math and puzzles and brain teasers and logic, and I became pretty good at them too. Even in elementary school, I had started preferring mathematics over any other subject. Despite other students being bored or befuddled by those topics, I loved them.
In middle school, when kids started seriously talking about "what they wanted to be when (if?) they grew up", I knew I wanted to do something with math. And as middle school turned into high school and I started tutoring other students, I started to realize I was a pretty decent (fourteen, fifteen, sixteen year old) little educator too. At least, I liked doing it, and other people were learning from me.
While I wasn't sure what grades I wanted to teach, I knew (at the very latest, by early high school) that I had officially wanted to teach math.
Probably high school, I had figured. The students had attitudes and were more jaded than younger kids, sure, but the math topics were more interesting and you could actually have mature conversations with those guys. (There are tons of pros and cons for teaching elementary or middle or high school or college kids, but these appealed to me most at the time.)
And as I got my bachelor's in mathematics and my master's in mathematics education, I kept tutoring. Everyone and everything. College kids? Easy. Kindergarteners? You got it. Standardized tests? I may not be a fan of them, but I know that big blue College Board SAT book like the back of my hand. I started working at public tutoring centers in tenth grade, and I haven't stopped (I don't plan on ever stopping). Private tutoring is great money too, although less dependable.
And as I tutored more and more, and gained more experience in the classroom (student teaching, TAing, practicum, etc.), and did more research for my current PhD program (math education too), I started leaning more towards instructing at the university level. Less politics and no whining parents. More responsibility is placed on the students and the teachers can actually teach. Et cetera.
And so while I continue my PhD at Rutgers New Brunswick in mathematics education, and work at public tutoring centers in central New Jersey, and private tutor non-stop, I went in for a job interview at NJIT as a pre-calculus adjunct professor. Long story short (I recognize that I'm ranting and all over the place right now), I got the job, got the information, and got a ton of paperwork.
I'm teaching pre-calculus for math/ science/ engineer majors in the fall, at NJIT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4PETDjI.jpg)
A picture made by a high school class I taught during my master's program.
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Yes, my last name is Mango.
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Yes, I find it amusing that so many other TL users have an ID with "Mango" in it.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QqH4XKf.gif)
~DPB
