Education AutobiographyAKA my successes, failures and mentors in education.

By Fazeena (Fizzy) Mohamed

Forest Avenue School

This is the first school I have actual memories of. Before attending kindergarten at Forest, I had gone to a Catholic school in Bloomfield and to Linden Avenue School in Glen Ridge for preschool.

When I was in first grade, I had trouble reading well. I was lucky enough to be in Mrs. Walter’s first grade class. She was a big fan of poets such as Shel Silverstein and had the patience to help me catch up to other students. I believe that her early influence on me is one of the reasons I love to read and have the taste in literature that I do.

Grades k-2

Ridgewood Avenue School

In third grade I was placed in Ms. Kozik’s class. I struggled through math the entire year and had to go after school for help. To this day, I’m still pretty terrible with the subject. The only other memorable thing about this woman was her love of manatees. When I become a teacher, I really hope I have better patience than my 3rd grade teacher did.

When fourth grade began I found myself in Mr. Schmidt’s classroom. He cared a lot about his students, knowing that was the year I’d found out I needed glasses and had been refusing to wear them, he made a point of wearing his own. This doesn’t sound like a big deal to most people, but when you’re ten years old it means a lot.

Grades 3-6

I spent so much time in GRHS. Looking back, everything is kind of a blur- I had some of the worst teachers ever in my time there, but at the same time I was also taught by one of the best people I know.

These were the years where I had made up my mind to go to school for Photography. A lot of my time here was defined by extracurricular activities and by photographing those activities.

Glen Ridge has one of the smallest school systems around, I believe this has shaped the way I learn. I think I would be very different, had I gone to somewhere larger such as Bloomfield High. Having been in college for three years and having gone to huge schools like RIT and MSU, I’ve noticed that I do much better in places like New School and Bloomfield College.

Grades 7-12

Glen Ridge High School

Mrs. Bachrach Mrs. Bachrach is the person that I want to be

when I’m teaching my class. She’s quirky, funny, smart, a teeny bit crazy, and in love with her subject matter (computer science). She is genuinely nice and thoughtful enough to bring bagels for every test her APCS course has. (except for Doug, who got a muffin, because in the all the years she knew him, she thought he hated muffins. Not wanting her to feel bad, he never pointed out that he likes bagels more.) In 2009 she got the yearbook dedication, even kids who never have her in class love her.

She was my teacher for five of the six years that I spent at Glen Ridge High I spent countless hours in her classroom after school studying for Java, Visual Basic, Web Design, Independent Study Computer Club, and just because I wanted to. In the weeks leading up to the AP exam two of my friends and I would stay there for hours after school let out. Having taken AP Computer Science junior year, a new subject was created so her seniors could remain in her class. I never intended to go to school for anything having to do with computer coding. I still go to her for advice, particularly about school.

Mrs. Bachrach’s Java Ring has a little piece of java chip inside of it. This ring has the power to *zap* you full of good thoughts so you can do well on anything you try.

The New School University Living in New York was one of the

best experiences of my life. I attended New School for a dual

degree, majoring in Photography and Liberal Arts

I was provided with opportunities that most people aren’t.

Some days I do regret leaving, but now I’m on a completely different path and a completely different person than I would have thought I would be three years ago.

What did I learn?– Sometimes things need to change,

whether you want them to or not. It may seem like the end of the world at the time, but usually it’s not.

First year of college…

Lily, Devin and Brenna were my best friends at New School, they helped with some of the worst times.

My freshman self-portrait assignment

Montclair State University This was when my journey got

complicated…I left New School not entirely willfully, I was depressed and at the time being on my own was not good for my wellbeing.

I went to Montclair twice. For one semester after New School and for one year after RIT.

In my time there I was suspended, appealed, and academically dismissed. Overall, my time there was disastrous. In retrospect, if I had taken a semester off after New School things would have been much smoother.

What did I learn?– School is too expensive and too

time consuming to not put thought into my actions.

1.5 year of college…?

Rochester Institute of Technology

This is the third school I didn’t succeed in.

Living in upstate New York on a college campus is very different than living in the West Village in NYC in a city campus.

Here I majored in Computer Science, once again I made the mistake of acting before thinking. At the time, all I wanted to do was to get away from living in the area I had grown up in.

Having taken computer courses with Mrs. Bachrach, she knew my thought processes and warned me against going for a major in coding. According to her, I’m more wired for visual fields such as web design as opposed to theoretical aspects of hardcore coding for languages such as Python.

Of course, I didn’t listen to her, failed out, and returned to MSU on probationary status.

Second year of college….

Above: RIT’s infamous Quarter Mile, an above-ground walk way which separates the dorms from campus.

Bloomfield College

Now, I’m at Bloomfield College. This is my fresh start.

Unlike Montclair State, here I don’t have a past GPA to compete against, I’m starting from scratch in a better mindset.

Unlike RIT, it’s a smaller school. Having been raised in a small school system, the teacher-student ratio here makes it easier to keep up and easier to ask questions when I need to. (versus RIT’s classes of 200+ in big lecture halls)

I’ve changed majors several times. After all the hit and misses, I think I’ve found the major that suits me best. And with all the time I’ve spent attending schools, it seems fitting to end up in education.

Now.

To be continued.