The thing I love the most about my job is the moment when students realize
something that they had never known before. If you're a teacher, you
definitely see it. It's like a light bulb goes off. Learning should be something
you continue to do your whole life. I just hope that I continue to make
students love science and technology in their futures. My name is Kira Lowery and
I'm a seventh grade science teacher at NYOS Charter School. As a country, we have
a shortage of a million STEM teachers. Employers are looking for people to
really train in STEM fields, and in order to guide students down those paths, we
need teachers and inspire them. UTeach is connecting people who have a passion
for STEM related fields to the classroom so that we can really encourage our
youth to pursue these in-demand high wage jobs that are going to keep us
competitive.
When you join the UTeach program, there are a wide array of degrees you
can select from. Students start by taking a few initial classes that are designed
to just give an exploratory experience with teaching and then, if they stay in
their program, they start taking the relevant coursework as sort of like a
minor at the same time that they're doing a regular degree. I think that
having great teachers early on in life is really really important because those
are the people that really shape the way that you start to perceive the world and
I think that's an awesome thing. And that's really why I'm in the UTeach
program. I'm Garrett Mott, I'm 21, and I'm a junior at the University of Texas at
Austin. UTeach provides students with the
opportunity to explore different sides of themselves and find out who they are.
Some of them might be surprised that in there is a teacher. I was studying
pre-med, I had been shadowing doctors as well as studying for a lot of my exams
and so I was really stressed out. One of my professors we have this TV screen
showing photos of all the people in UTeach and as soon as I walked in, my
photo came up and I looked so happy teaching. I realized that I needed to
change my career path and pursue being a teacher. In many cases, once people do try
teaching, they realize that it's the best kind of career for them. They, in turn,
become the types of teachers that can capture and inspire students. Releasing
the dedication and students is a very wonderful thing to do.
Being a physicist / math major, I could go off and get a job being a physicist or a
mathematician but, in Step One, I had this experience where as I was leaving all
the kids that I taught were like Mr. Mott, don't leave, please don't go. And those
are the moments that I look forward to having on almost a daily basis when I
am a teacher, and that's really kind of what drives me and motivates me to
pursue this career. Garrett has an incredibly bright future as a teacher.
I'm so glad that he's going down this pathway because I think he's gonna make
a huge difference in many lives. I love my job. Whenever I walk into the
classroom and students are excited to learn, that makes it fun for me. Just
coming up with new ideas and new lessons and trying to make it fun for students
and enjoyable for students is really something I feel passionately about. Kira
Lowery brings so much in the classroom but she also brings a lot to the campus at
large. We liked how she connected with
students. She understood her standard really well, students were involved, so I
kind of knew like this is a really good teacher with a lot of potential and the rest
is history. She takes what she learns and she applies it every single year and
then tweaks it just a little bit to give these kids a better experience every
single time. it is truly inspiring to watch her every year get better at what
she's doing. I'm very proud of the impact we've had nationally and I think we'll
continue to have, but I think it's made a real difference and I think it has had
an effect on changing how teaching is done and how teachers are being trained.
What makes the UTeach program special are the students themselves. These kids
are passionate about their domain. They care about computer science they care
about math and this is a job where they get to show that where they really get
to spread their wings and inspire a whole new generation