Fellow Profiles

Letter from Josh Topp, 2011 Teaching Fellow - Yuma, Arizona

Dear Future Fellow,

My name is Josh and I am currently finishing up my first year as a middle school mathematics teacher. Before joining the Arizona Teaching Fellows, I worked as a General Merchandise Team Leader for Midwest retail store of Meijer. After two years working in the business world, I realized that I’d rather be in a more rewarding career. While business was enjoyable to me, I did not go home at the end of the day feeling like I made a difference. I wanted to teach.

Within a couple months, I had applied, interviewed, and accepted a position as an Arizona Teacher Fellow. Within weeks of that, a middle school principal from Yuma had requested an interview with me. Twenty minutes after my phone interview, the principal called me back and offered me the position. I was going to move to Yuma. Knowing nothing about Yuma, I did some research and found out three things: (1) Yuma is located approximately 3 miles from California and 20 miles from Mexico. (2) Yuma, according to Guinness Book of Records, is the sunniest place on earth. (Say goodbye to Seasonal Affective Disorder!) And (3) Yuma is FAR away from home and everything I knew.

I was immediately accepted into my community. My principal, instructional coach, teachers, and other staff members of my school took me in as their own. The never-ending support from the administration and new colleagues was encouraging. Both my principal and instructional coach check up on me weekly to make sure I am doing okay and just to see if I need anything. What I like most about my principal and coach is that they observe me often and offer me feedback. I want to know what I am doing well and what I need to tweak and they are both very positive in how they offer me feedback and advice.

The relationships I’ve formed with both students and parents have been positively overwhelming. It’s truly amazing how much trust and respect parents have for their child’s teachers. As a younger looking male going into his first year teaching, I was nervous that parents wouldn’t trust me, my experience, or my motives to teach their child. How wrong I was! Throughout the past nine months, I’ve built solid relationships with both students and parents that have affirmed my decision to teach and challenged me to be an even better teacher.

While teaching in Yuma has been the most rewarding and life-changing experience, it has not come without challenges. The toughest part is starting from scratch and having to create the initial lesson plans. Along with this, teaching myself much of the material in several different ways so that I am able to convey the lesson in various ways to different styles of learners—a task that can be very time consuming. Another challenge of a first year teacher is balancing professional work, certification course work, and personal life. Most of my free time is spent staying after school tutoring, watching my students’ games, and getting involved with various school activities. My principal has actually had to tell me to go home and relax! It’s important for a first year teacher to balance professional and personal life in order to not experience burnout. Another challenge is classroom management. I do well in that department, but if I could go back and do it all over again, I’d change several things.

I leave you with one last thing. No matter where you teach, what you teach, or how you teach, it’s important to let the students know you like them and you love what you do. Teach with enthusiasm. Students are very intuitive (no matter what age). Two things to do in the first month of teaching: (1) Start off strict and (2) Get to know your students. Make sure they know they are more than just “a number” in your class. They want to be known, and once they feel known, they will do whatever you ask without complaint. Relationships come first. Do it right the first time and your school year will go much more smoothly.

Sincerely,

Josh

Since 2008, 150 talented professionals have stepped into classrooms in Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales, and Yuma. Together they're addressing perennial shortages for talented math, science, language arts, and Special Education teachers in Arizona school districts. View our Fellow Profiles to get a deeper understanding of the Fellow experience.