User:Lumsden232

 About Me .... Well, I currently live in Troutville, Virginia with my loving wife and brilliant ten year old daughter. All three of us were born in Roanoke, which is next to Troutville, and we love the mountains here in Virginia. We own our home which has undergone a transformation since we had a house fire last Thanksgiving and still to this day we are working on making it home again. Don't worry, we are in the "buy-everything-again" phase so the wife is loving life. My wife works full time for a hearing aid company, my daughter attends elementary school (with straight A's for the year), and I work full time for the Roanoke Valley Juvenile Detention Center. So as you may imagine I do get to meet some of the most... hmm..... unique children this area has to offer.

Prior to my current job I was a UPS Operations Area Coordinator, which is cool talk for "business big wig". It was a stressful position which required me to make important decisions, be the boss for over 150 people, be on call 24/7, work an average of fifteen hours a day, and the most horrible part was that I had to wear a suit AND tie every day! Yea, it was really powerful, paid VERY well, and carried a lot of prestige but it kept me from having a life. So, I decided to stop "living for work" and begin "working for a living". Crazy some may say but trust me, when you realize your job gets more attention from you than your child, well you just might start seeing life my way.

I also lived in Germany for three years, traveled most of Europe, did a little time above the arctic circle, and if you haven't guessed it, yes, I was in the military. Specifically, I served in an Army Airborne Ranger Unit were I fought in Kosovo but missed the Iraq efforts, every time. After earning my Sergeant strips, a couple of combat tours, and an airborne injury, I finally completed my contract and came running home so that I could finally go to college.

Now I have two A.S. degrees and a B.S. which have been enlightening. However, it is that prized M.S.Ed. which I currently seek in the hopes of switching jobs one more time. See, for me, a job is just a job until you love it, then it becomes a career. Hopefully, I will reach my goal in a little over a year and finally start teaching children.

'Teaching Philosophy:' Personally, I feel that every child is a work in progress. I base this primarily upon our laws since I see it at work all the time. Imagine, suddenly one day you wake up and it is illegal for you to have a job... so you're fired. Next, you find out that you can't have any contracts.... so you are kicked out of your apartment or house, all your credit cards are canceled, and your car is repossessed. Now if this is not enough, you also in this same day get either one or two guardians assigned to you who instruct you in every minute of your day. They're views are totally different than yours since they are.... hmm... communist and if you rebel... well we all know what happens to people who rebel in communist nations. So, after all this life doesn't sound so good does it? You basically must do as told or else you starve, are punished harshly, and could never manage to get ahead ever again in life. Well, this is the life of a child. They are only as good as the adults in they're life. If the parents are bad then the child's chances of a good life are horribly diminished.

Taking this into account, I feel that my greatest belief is that every child must be treated equally, despite differences on all levels. Growing up, I hated school but it was for good cause. The teaching staff seemed to exercise a bias toward the less wealthy, they used discrimination based on appearances, and they too allowed themselves to gravitate toward cliques. This MUST not be allowed and it is the duty of the teacher to recognize this and refrain from these types of behavior.

Once again, imagine teaching a class for the first time. You enter the room after all the students have taken their seats. The first thing you do is look at the class, after all it is human nature. As you do so some individuals stick out in your mind. Typically it is the big kid dressed in punk rock clothing, the other kid dressed like a rap star, the girl with the short shorts on that no mother would allow her to wear, and the kid in the very back which you were warned about. Yeah, you will notice these individuals but you won't notice the "well to do" kids since they never cause any trouble... right? Well, let this be a lesson for you, if you think like this then those kids you noticed are already doomed for failure. Undoubtably, you will gravitate toward your comfort zone and focus upon those kids you did not see since you feel safe with them. However, it is those kids which I mentioned, remember the big kid in the back of the room, that pose the greatest asset to our future. They dare to challenge norms, they deal with a life harsher than those you trust, and because of these facts they have the greatest potential to learn, lead, and become more.