Patrick Powers

As a child, my mother made flashcards to help me learn words. She also used rhymes and patterns to help me remember how to pronounce certain words.

When I was 7 years old, for Christmas I received a Lea-pad which made learning more interactive and enjoyable. I was bought differnt games and I really did enjoy

I experienced bullying in a public venue from one of my former classmates during my senior year of high school.

In result, I came up with a plan to start an anti-bulling and non-violence movement at my high school where I gave motivational speeches in the classrooms about the importance of good decisions, setting goals, and staying focus on dreams. Everyone who participated in the event wore bandaids along with me to demonstrate anti-bullying.

I've had the pleasure to work for Communities in Schools for 3 years where I've been able to share my past experience and help students make good decisions and stay on the right path.

I've been able to experience the joy of working with students and seeing them grow and be successful.

Last year I was the interim Transitions Coach at my former High School where I was in charge of 50 students. I was responsible for mentoring these 50 high school seniors and help them to maintain a positive attitude about school, graduate, and be accepted into at least one college.

Attended school there from 1st-12th grade.

The demographics were mostly Black and Hispanic.

Most children their were considered to be low income.

My family's social economic status was in the middle class. I had everything I needed to learn and thrive in the classroom.

Although the philosophy of my school was Essentialism, I believe that I would've benefited more from more of a Progressive system. With standardized testing I know that is difficult to incorporate but I would have preferred to collaborate and work together with my peers.

Learning was effective because we had good teachers as well as good resources. We had a class set of books for us to use as well as a great library and online databases for us to conduct our research.

I was in Gifted & Talented from 4-6th grade.

I was rewarded 3 scholarships from my school during my senior year.

I became an A/B student in 5th grade after my mother gave me the confidence to work harder for better grades. I remember me crying when I didn't receive an award on awards day in 4th grade. She explained to me that if I focused on improving my effort level and set goals for myself that I could accomplish anything. I've been an A/B student every since then. I don't think I would have made it this far without her encouragement and her pushing me to strive to be the best I could be. She made sure that realized how important education is.

My close cousin, Dr. Shields has had a huge impact on me in the Education field. As the superintendnt of LVISD, I've seen the genuine love and care that she has for her students. She truly cares about students succeding not just in high school, but in college and beyond. She's been an excellent example to me. I believe that she prefers for the teachers in the school district to use a combination of all the philosphies that we've discussed class including, Essentailism, Progressivism, Social Reconstrunctionism and Pereneialism.

During my senior and junior year I had a coach for History and Economics named Coach Hyde. I really did enjoy going to his class because he was so passionate about teaching history. He made a boring subject interesting and he used great examples so that we could better understand the events that where taking place. I enjoyed his enthusiasm and funny personality while learning. It made me think of myself as being a teacher one day because I seen how impactful effective teaching could be.