My name is Celia Boggan, I am from Decatur, MS and I am currently a junior at Mississippi State University. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends and I am the youngest of four kids. I have two older sisters named Emily and Natalie who are ten years older then me and I have one older brother named Matthew who is seven years older then me. I absolutely love being an aunt of four. I have two nephews named Tyson and Hollis and I have two twin nieces named Katherine and Anna Lola.

 I have known all my life that I wanted to work with children, but I tried my best to avoid being a teacher. Growing up, I had a hard time being able to express my feelings and it was hard for me to understand different things. I thought differently then most children my age and school was really hard for me. As an elementary student, I feel that some of my teachers did not know how to help me. I grew frustrated as well as my teachers did and I feel that some of my teachers gave up on me. Because of that, I never wanted to be a teacher for the fear of not being able to help some students and giving up on them.   What motivated me to become a teacher was having the opportunity to be the Children leader at my church. For two summer's straight, I worked with about 15 to 20 kids from the age’s four years old to 5th grade. It was very challenging to find activities that all the kids would enjoy doing but I loved every minute of it. The opportunity of being the children’s leader showed me that my purpose in life is to help children like me and for me to be more understanding as a teacher. All my teachers were not bad, I had some amazing teachers. But the one or two bad ones stand out in my head more then the really great teachers. A goal that I want to learn for this class is to learn more about middle school students and the difference between them and elementary school students. Another goal for me is to learn how to create an appropriate curriculum for middle school students.

 My general expectations for this specific class are to get a good understanding of how middle school students learn and work. I hope to learn a lot about how to set up lesson plans and learn different ways to teach middle school students.

 Middle school was very hard for me both academically and socially. I had to work very hard to make good grades and study a lot and the girls were evil in my grade. Now that I look back, I’m sure I was one of the mean girls but that didn’t stop other girls from being mean to me also. One thing that some of my middle school teachers did that was beneficial to my overall learning experiences was caring about my feelings and were there to talk to me if I needed them. I feel that I had teachers that I can still go back and talk to if I am upset or hurt by someone. Knowing that my teachers cared for me helped my learning experiences of middle school. Another thing that my teachers did that was beneficial to my overall learning experience was staying after school to tutor me if I had a hard time in class that day. I had some great middle school teachers that worked extra hard to make sure I understood the lesson. The last thing that one of my middle school teachers did that was beneficial to my overall learning experience was that I had one teacher that treated me like an adult even though in most teacher eyes, I was still a child. This teacher helped me to become more responsible and prepared me for high school.

 One thing that some middle school teachers did that was detrimental to my overall learning experiences was that I had some teachers that were just really mean and small-minded. I feel that some teachers acted like some of the middle school students and I remember some of the female teachers gathering together to talk in the hallway. They acted as if they were the mean girls and they would sometimes bully some of the students.  Because of that, it was hard for me to respect the teachers and learn from them. I also had some teachers that did not teach me well because the only reason why they were teachers was to get summers off. Even though I only had one or two teachers like that, it hurt me academically wise because their class was so easy. Another thing that one middle school teacher did that was detrimental to the overall learning experience for me was that one teacher never made me feel comfortable in her class. She would scream at me and other students and this teacher never respected us as students. I was afraid to ask questions and because of that, I had hard time learning in her classroom.

What I have to offer to the class community is a different view on things. I see things differently then other people and I have always been able to help people look at situations in different perspectives.