My husband and I both graduated from FLC in 2006. I got my BA in English Education and my husband got his BA in Math and a BS in Biochemistry. I have always known that I wanted to teach, so I was hired as a high school English teacher in Aurora Public School right away while my husband thought about what he wanted to do. After watching me teach for a year, he decided that he also wanted to teach, so he entered into Aurora Public School's program where for math and science teachers they can teach in the classroom while they get some classes specific to education, paid for by the district, Teacher-in-Residence. Unfortunately, he entered teaching at a time when cuts were CRAZY in the area schools, and he was let go after two years because of the 'last in- first out' policies in schools when cuts were needed. Then he moved to CCSD to work in their expulsion school, and he found his niche! He was so great with those students. I was still in Aurora Public Schools, slowly being promoted to various positions. However, after two years, the same thing happened with the budget in Cherry creek, and my husband's school lost ALL of their probationary teachers!
Being an ARMY brat, I knew about the military schools overseas, but I wasn't sure how to get into them. Fortunately, my sister had just been hired one year earlier to the military school in Portugal, so we went online to fill out the application to for Department of Defense schools, and we waited. We are both in love with teaching and things in educational politics, funding, and regulations was turning south and seriously cramping out abilities and motivation in Aurora.
In July of 2011, he got a call and was offered the job in Turkey. While we were flattered, we quickly decided that we couldn't just pick up and move to Turkey, especially with our boys. Within hours of turning down the job, the Principal of the school called us and asked us to reconsider; so we did, and it was the best decision we have ever made. This is our fourth year in Turkey and we love it! It is a small school with small class sizes where we teach the students of the military service members here at our base. There are several schools worldwide, and we are encouraged to transfer schools in this 'district' so that we stay relevant and understand the struggles of the military families. This is the educational setting that I dreamed about all those years ago when I knew that teaching was what I was born to do. We travel on all of our breaks, even our three day weekends, and our own children are getting such a great opportunity to see the world. We return to Denver every summer to see family, and we are so incredibly happy here!!
Amanda & Matthew Burkman class of '06