Monica+Judd+-+Science

Becoming a science teacher didn't occur to me until I was well into my 30's. I had done a little substitute teaching right after college which only served to intimidate me. The students looked older than I did and I had no clue what I was doing as I had no educational training whatsoever. They, of course, knew that the minute I walked in the door.

My plan was to find a job researching wolves in the Arctic tundra. As luck would have it, the wolves weren't in dire need of inexperienced researchers at that time so I went into banking and then retail. After a husband and two children entered the picture, I found myself managing a branch of a teacher's credit union and wondering what I was going to do when I grew up. Maybe it was the teachers who came to the branch and talked about their students or maybe it was my fondness for science that drew me toward the classroom. It may have even been that my own children were approaching middle school age and were still quite tolerable to be around that convinced me that teaching would be for me. Whatever it was - I'm glad it happened.

I began by studying education in a nearby university that offered a full time program with a nine month internship. It provided the opportunity for me to experience teaching with a mentor nearby for an entire school year while attending classes. It was exactly what I needed to feel ready for a classroom of my own. I was fortunate to find a job with the Niskayuna Central School District where I had done my internship. A middle school science position opened up and I began my teaching career in 1996.

Since then, each year of teaching has provided new challenges and new areas of growth. At first it was about control of the classroom, then it became about covering the material. Eventually it became about facilitating learning - which, it turns out, is really difficult to do well. Along the way, I decided to pursue national board certification to further my skills. The process provided a wealth of collegial discussion and a realization that there was still much to learn. And so the process continues...I am in the enviable position of working with colleagues who strive to improve their craft not just every year but every day. The conversations continue as we try to do what we can to draw from each other's strengths. With any luck, we'll send our students on each year just a little bit more ready for their adventures ahead.