Over the course of my M.A.T. program, I have grown exponentially as a person and an educator. I have been fortunate enough to work under fantastic mentors in three different schools in two different countries. My experiences over the past year as an educator in St. Mary’s County, Maryland and in The Gambia, West Africa have slightly altered my understanding of teaching as a profession but have only solidified my determination to be an effective teacher and to create an interactive, fun, and safe environment in which my students can learn. I now more fully appreciate the challenges faced on a daily basis by teachers, including heartbreaking student situations, restraining policy, financial concerns, and extreme time commitment. However, I am also absolutely positive that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Even early in my anchor placement, I felt comfortable and successful as the head of a classroom, and those feelings were validated by my students’ and my mentor’s response to my teaching. My brief experience as an educator in The Gambia was extremely challenging because teachers are given very few, if any, resources and corporal punishment is a main form of discipline. This experience both showed me what was possible without resources and reaffirmed my belief that students will not learn in an environment where they do not feel safe. Constant reflection is an important aspect of being an educator. I have provided one example of my own personal reflection, in the form of my Anchor Placement Currere Project, to evidence my ability to reflect on teaching practice, taking into account the influence of personal bias and moral and ethical issues and perspectives, to continuously improve student learning. This project shows how I synthesize my past with my goals for the future, with continuity and relationships as the constant threads that connect past to future.