Teaching – My Second Career by Mike Siekkinen

I became a teacher as a second career. As a retired military man, I had the opportunity to teach in the Navy on two separate shore duty assignments. I taught both enlisted and officers on subjects ranging from leadership, procedures to operate complex electronic systems and submarine navigation. Having enjoyed teaching, I thought the next logical step was to teach when retiring from the Navy.



I had a baptism of fire, so to speak, with regards to entering public education. Having completed all of the requirements to become a public school teacher, minus student teaching, I was hired to teach 8th grade history at a nearby middle school. I had high expectations and was excited to begin teaching. I thought with my teaching experience, quick wit and humor (I could always make people laugh), that teaching "kids" would be a breeze. I envisioned the students "flocking" to me and sitting at my feet while I filled their heads with knowledge and they walked away smiling and thanking me. Looking back, I call this my "kumbaya" teaching fantasy.

Real life teaching was not quite like I thought it would be. Many times I thought "What have I gotten myself into?" that first year. But you learn, sometimes by the mistakes that you make. You do have those moments when everything works that you try and before you know it the year is over. It gets easier for most of us and you find your strengths and weakness and what you can do best. Don't be discouraged, most of us "make it out alive!” The second (and then third, fourth, etc.) years are easier and keep getting better!

How did you come to teaching?

Dr. Mike Siekkinen, a retired U.S. Navy submariner, became a teacher as a second career. He teaches history at St Marys Middle School as well as Adult and Career Education at Valdosta State in Georgia.

You're About to Enter...The Teaching Zone by Susan Gable

(Cue the scary music!)

Imagine, if you will...a classroom filled with enrapt, engaged, enthralled students, hanging on your every word...

Too much of a stretch? Sound like an alternate dimension? Is it more likely they’re sneaking peeks at tech when they’re not supposed to be, or trying to explain why they didn’t turn in their homework? And you’re busy trying to be sure all the free lunch forms have been turned in, and the emergency contact cards, and master the new curriculum, along with the new Learning Management System, and don’t forget, there’s a staff meeting after school next week?

Yep. Being a teacher is a lot of hard work. There’s a LOT to handle. That’s why we here at izzit.org like to do what we can to make your life easier, be it through our free DVDs, our new streaming access to all our videos, online quizzes, or the thorough teacher’s guides we create. We know you’re busy.

The Teaching Zone is going to be a new spot for you to get ideas from your fellow educators, from teachers to homeschoolers, from New York to California, from public school to private to cyber. We’ll have book reviews, classroom activities, posts about new trends in education, new apps and software for you to use – all sorts of things.

And if you want to talk/learn about it, and you don’t see us posting about it, feel free to drop me an email and tell me what you’d like to see.

This is an education space.

So...let’s talk teaching, in all its variations.

Welcome back, and I hope you have a fantastic 2015-16 school year!

Susan Gable is the Director of Educational Curriculum at izzit.org. She holds a BA in Psychology from Douglas College/Rutgers University and is a certified elementary teacher in 3 states, with ten years of classroom experience. She’s a multi-published, award-winning author who also teaches writing workshops. Email her at Susan AT izzit.org.