“My high school English teacher was actually the person who made me decide that I wanted to pursue teaching.”

When Ms. Brede was young she liked school and thought it was fun learning about English.

She studied at the University of Michigan then got her degree in English and her teaching certificate.

She moved to California to pursue a career in teaching, but if it wasn’t for her English high school teacher she wouldn’t be a teacher. Ms. Brede transferred her qualifications here to Los Angeles and teaches at Animo Jefferson Middle School.

Now that Ms. Brede is a teacher she enjoys making relationships with the students and also enjoys how students always have something to share.

Transcript:

Erick Guatemala: Hello my name is Erick, and today I am going to be interviewing Ms. Brede, and I just wanted to know some things about her cause like I want to be a teacher when I grow up, and yeah. So like what are some background about you?

Angelina Brede: Okay um… anything like about my life.

EG: Yeah.

AB: Okay. I grew up in Michigan, I went to high school in Michigan, and then I in a smaller city, and then, I moved to Ann Arbor, which is a bigger city in Michigan to go to college there in the University of Michigan. I went there for four years. I got a degree in English and then I decided to get my teaching certificate too, and then, right out of college I moved to California.

EG: Umm… One question I wanted to ask is how long did it take to be a teacher?

AB: Like the schooling?

EG: Yeah.

AB: The schooling is really different in Michigan vs. California. So I think if you want to be a teacher in California it takes a long time to like earn the qualification that you need but, in Michigan I went like, I was like in my junior year of college, and I decided I wanted to like get a teaching certificate, umm… in addition to my English degree so… I applied to the school of education, and they had a program that was three semesters long umm, and I took some tests after those three semester, and then… I had my teaching certificate for Michigan, and I had to transfer it over to teach in California. So it took like three semesters for Michigan but California it different. People take years.

EG: Alright, and why did you want to become a teacher in the first place?

AB: Okay, so I always thought when I was younger that I’d wanted, I wanted to substitute teach, I’d want to stay in the classroom in some capacity because when I was younger I loved being a student. I was a good student umm I thought it was fun. I loved like forming relationship with my teachers so I thought that I want to replicate that same thing one day, and like I said I didn’t decide until I was in junior year college to be like ‘why don’t I just like commit to or like to earn the qualification to do this full time.’    

EG: Oh umm what are some challenging things about being a teacher?

AB: Okay umm some challenging things are just I don’t know I mean there are challenging things in every job, maybe how early school starts is a struggle to get up that early, umm managing many children, being in, just being one adult can sometimes be challenging. Umm trying to make sure lessons are engaging for your students can be tough umm cause then you have to adjust to what works and doesn’t for different classes and just learning to becoming adaptable.   

EG: Oh and like what are also some fun parts or any benefits? 

AB: Well of course there are benefits umm like I said forming relationship with the students is a big positive, is a big part. I think you guys can be pretty funny so that’s a positive part cause it never boring, there’s never a day where I go in and it’s just like whatever. Umm you guys always have something to say or something… some stories to share it’s entertaining and its better in that way than a nine to five job at like corporate job in a cubicle at a desk, although it can be tiring which I would say is a challenge umm, it’s not boring.  

EG: Okay the last question is who is someone that inspired you or a role model that has helped you in like you become a teacher? 

AB: Oh umm my high school English teacher was actually the person who like made me decide that I wanted to pursue teaching. He was my teacher for 9th, 11th and 12th grade umm so I feel like he always saw the best of me, and thought that… even though I was shy in high school I feel like he was a teacher who like saw potential in me, and actually cared about what I was doing, and he inspired me, to just like cause he taught English so I started to really like the subject I like the thing that we read in his class I thought they were interesting umm I liked the writing assignment that we did in his class, and he also went to the same university I went too. So just knowing all that about him and everything we did in his class he was definitely an inspiration umm in me deciding to teach. 

EG: Oh did you ever think you were ever going to be a teacher at one point?

AB: Before high school no. He was the reason I became a teacher.

EG: Oh.