Brigitte Cunning

My journey in education has been about 5 years actively, and I just completed a one-year position as a teacher in residence where I was mentored by a veteran teacher. I worked with 8th grade students teaching science, but it was a very different kind of science than what I learned growing up. We took students through complex concepts like how magnets work, how speakers make sounds through forces and contact forces, and we finished with genetics and sexual reproduction, explaining how genes and chromosomes come together. My role was to monitor the classroom for attentiveness and effectiveness of lesson delivery. While the mentor teacher taught, I would go around to see who needed help, because kids often need help but don't like to ask for it. I would stop with students and ask how it's going, listen to what they understood, and nudge them back on track if they were missing anything. I loved those eureka moments when a student would finally get it and say 'okay, you can go now' because they understood the whole process. Before education, my career path was varied. Right out of high school, I worked as a clerk in an office, but I always had a yearning to learn and understand more. I was inspired by my siblings who all went to university, and I wanted to do that too. I came to realize that I enjoy work that requires communication. I don't like working with machinery, and data processing jobs became dull unless they were creative. I found that anything where I had to explain or guide someone through a process, interact one-on-one or present to groups, I enjoyed because I like to see people's reactions when I give them new information that solves a problem. This led me from office work into sales, then into finance where I became an insurance agent, helping people understand what they should do with their income and how to plan for their future. I also worked as a secretary and administrative assistant, dealing with the front line, monitoring calls, and making sure people got their questions answered. When I moved from Massachusetts to Georgia, I started teaching preschool with 3 and 4 year olds, many of whom were Spanish-speaking students. I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it and how fascinated I was watching them learn. I realized that kids observe and emulate what they see, so if I'm reading, writing, and painting, they will do it too without pressure. This discovery led me to start my own family home daycare in Georgia with about 6 students ranging from infants to 5 year olds. Parents told me their children's behavior improved dramatically, wanting to help set the table and clean up, because that's what we did at my school. That experience made me realize I can influence others to do what is good for them by creating an environment where they can achieve their goals. That daycare, which I ran for one year, made me so proud that it pushed me to go back to school. I had to close it due to mortgage issues during that difficult time in our economy, so I went to China to teach English as a foreign expert. While there, I enrolled in an online Master's program in Instructional Technology at University of Houston Clear Lake. I didn't complete it because I needed to pass an exam, but when I came back to New York, I decided to keep going with teaching. I'm currently pursuing my Master of Arts in Teaching for Certification, hoping to complete it by the end of this year. I'm also looking forward to learning AI to support and supplement all my skills. I can't stop working or learning. Even though others think about retiring, I need to have goals to go after. Right now, I'm also looking to become a financial educator, combining my two focus areas of finance and education. I want to teach not just young children, but high school students and adults how to manage their finances from day one, making saving a routine and a mindset rather than just a task.