I am an Asian American Woman in education. I have my Bachelor's degree in Human Development and Psychology. I finished my teaching credential in one year and my Master's degree in Education in one year after that. I have been teaching for four years. On March 15, 2010, the impossible happened. I received a pink slip. I am Asian American. I worked hard to get where I am. I work in a high poverty school where children are given free or reduced priced lunches everyday. I work long hours and I don't get paid overtime. 

I was initially angry that I was laid off. Then, apathetic. I know feel horribly motivated to make sure I can keep my job because I know that my heritage and history can help students and parents.  I am the first generation born here in the United States. My parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan in the 1970's and worked long hard hours, flipping burgers, selling jewelry door-to-door and traveling the country to make a sale. My parents worked all day long and neither spoke enough English to help me with my homework. My parents did all they could to make ends meet and my job was to do well in school, no matter what it took. If I came home not knowing how to do my homework, my parents would drive me back to school and make me ask how to do it because they knew they couldn't help me. When I got back into the car, embarrassed that I had to go back to my teacher to ask for help, I got lectured for not listening in the first place.  So from that point forward, I listened. I figured things out. I used examples and things  I knew to solve new problems. I suceeded.

However, many of the students I've encountered in the past four years have little accountability at home. They come to school without their homework done. They don't study for their spelling tests.  Even more so, when I call parents, they don't really care that their children don't do their homework. That's not what they tell me, of course, but when the next day rolls around, homework is still incomplete. 

So, although there's no guarantee that I'll have a job next year, I do know that I can make a difference in these children's lives. I can teach them how to care, how to listen, how to be responsible for yourself because I did it and I was successful and they can be too.