Thread: roll call! -- Tell us about you!

I'll start.

My teaching -- I've taught K, 5th, 7th and up. I teach mathematics mainly, but I've gotten roped into some sciences. I'm the school webmaster. In my past careers -- I wrote freelance and helped churches get preschool and children's programs started.

I've been married to Ron for a very long time. We have two sons and one DIL. They are all precious (of course). Ron has moved us all over the south.

I love to play with the computer. I like to sew, garden, cook. I've gone back to school this past year to work on a Masters in Tech Writing.

I may add something later. I just got back from a trip and my brain is fuzzier than normal. :wink:

My name is Curtis and I teach at a charter school in Lakeland, FL. I teach 12th grade English and am beginning my 9 year of teaching seniors. I love them!

I am currently half way through completing my Masters in Education from Florida Southern College.

I am married to my wonderful wife, who also taught high school English, but is now a full time mom. I have four great boys ages 10, 2 1/2, 4, 9m.

CR

Howdy!

I teach Special Education. I have 4th through 8th grade students for Language. I will also be doing inclusion in 7th grade Science. I love my school, and the work with the students involves much more than the academics.

I am the wife of a Lutheran minister. We will celebrate our 31st anniversary in a month. We have lived in Nebraska for a number of years, but are now back in our home state of Illinois. We moved my mother to an assisted living apartment in the next town and see to her needs.

We have two children. Our oldest has completed her first year of being a HS math teacher. She also coached softball while working part time at the church camp. She is full time over the summer.

Our son will be a sophomore in college, and he is thriving there. He just needs to decide on a major.

Zacchaeus is our old dog and quite a character. He keeps us company while we are empty nesters.

I love computers, cross stitching, reading, and collect quotations. Between church, school, children and activities, life is quite full.

Bananas is the name of our first dog, who was so hyper. Never name an animal Bananas as they live up to it!

I'm Monica and I'm making a move in to special education after 14 years in "regular" education. I used to teach high school mathematics, science and computers. This fall, I will be teaching a self-contained classroom for students with severe/profound disabilities. It will be an interesting, and much needed, change for me.

We live in Southern Alberta, Canada and I am in the process of trying to sell my house in the little town that I've been in to move in to the city where my new school is. It is only about a half hour from where I live so I'm starting to suspect that I will be doing some driving at least a first.

I'm a single mom (through adoption) to one spunky, funny, sometimes cracky, 7 year old Mikey. Mikey has Down syndrome and keeps me hopping.

That is me in a nutshell. I mostly lurk but do sometimes find time to jump in on a thread .

Professional:

I began my career in 1993 as a substitute. That led to my full-time position as a high school English teacher, but the position was only available for one year. The following year I taught two "overflow" classes at the middle school, one 7th grade language arts and one 8th grade reading. The rest of the day I was the homebound/hospital teacher for grades K-12. When I wasn't doing that, I was an assistant in LA and SPED rooms or worked in the office. (You can learn a lot answering phones in the office!) The next year I took over for a 7/8 langauge arts teacher who was taking a leave of absence to teach overseas, and I've been there ever since! Mostly I teach 7th grade language arts, which has included reading for several years. I also volunteer to take "odd" classes when they need it. My favorite was the 8th grade independent study class. My least favorite were those darned 6th graders for LA enrichment. (I keep hoping they've grown up since last year because I've got them ALL YEAR this time!)

I got my MA in American & British literature in 1996. I completed the National Writing Project in 2004. I'm also the 7th grade team leader, the writing cluster leader, and the department head. I'm also the unofficial tech person . . . which mainly involves easy stuff.


Personal:

I live in a small, rural town about 45 miles southeast of Lexington, Kentucky. (Nobody knows any closer towns!) I teach in the same district where I attended school. I'd say that 90% of my coworkers were my teachers or attended school with me. (Two are even former students, but I don't like to think about that.)

My husband's name is Chad, and he's a professional musician. He's the lead guitarist for the country band Desert Wind. He also teaches guitar, bass, and banjo lessons from our house. Oh, and he's a "househusband". We married in October of 2000 and have no children.

My hobbies include flower/veggie gardening, cross-stitch, "geeky" stuff like making web pages, scrapbooking, and reading.

We can't have "fuzzy" pets in the house due to allergies and don't have a fenced yard, so my dog Gene lives across town with my parents. He's an 11 year old shepherd mix . . . basically a small floppy-eared German Shepherd with no tail. At home we have four fancy goldfish in a barrel on the front porch, four fancy goldfish in a large aquarium in the house, and a 55 gallon tropical tank in the den. It's mostly gouramis in there.

I earned my bachelor's degree in mathematics in 2000.

I am now a high school mathematics teacher entering my fourth year. I've taught Algebra I and II, Math Models (substitute 3rd year math in Texas), and this year will teach Geometry. I do what I love and I love what I do, so I am about as enthusiastic as one can get without being bubble-headed.

I've coached UIL math the past two years and will coach both UIL math and UIL calculator this year. Last year, I coached Academic Decathlon and had the startling realization that this is NOT my forte. I have declined to continue coaching AD.

Personally, I am married and have been for 6 years. This is my second husband. I came to this marriage with one son (born in 93) and hubby came with a daughter (born in 97) and twin boys (born in 98 ). His daughter lives with her mother. Together, we had two more boys born in 01 and 02. In case you lost count, that's 5 boys year round. The girl stays with us during the summer.

My hobbies include reading, crochet, cross-stitch, roller skating (although I'm taking an extended break from this one), and thinking up new ways to approach math problems and topics. I also enjoy spending time snuggling with my boys, reading them stories, playing games with them, and singing with them. For outdoor activities, anything that involves playing in water is good with me (south Texas is HOT).

I earned a Bachelor of Communications degree from AUT, I graduated in 2003 and went and worked in a "real" job for six months and hated every minute of it. Then I decided to try all the different jobs I could in the industry and had fun, but got depressed by the commercialism of media in NZ/world. So I gave up and went to work at Sky City Casino for a while, dressed as the Queen of Hearts or Dotty Dice or Chippy etc. I also worked in the sky tower as Scotty the Sky Tower. That was awesome and I loved it, but I realised that waht I actually liked was working with the kids that came up to me. Then I went and opened up a photo manipulation business also at Sky City and worked on the Vertigo Climb for a bit. All lots of fun but totally unfulfilling. So... I decided to look at what I actually liked doing and what I thought I was good at. I came up with a list that totally fitted teaching so I went and became a teacher.

I love teaching. It is what God made me to do. There is something so amazing to be in a job that you know you are meant to be in.

I teach at Pukekohe High School. A decile 6 school about 45 minutes south of Auckland, New Zealand. We have a mix of "decile 10" students and "decile 1" students hence the middle decile. We also have a mix of city kids and farm kids so it makes for some pretty interesting conversations during home room... I learnt how to find out whether a cow is pregnant or not the other day. Information I am sure I will use sometime....

In terms of personal life...

I have a budgie. His name is Cascade. I love him to bits. He is ancient now, about 14 years old. Generally budgies only last 8 years or so, so it is good to see he is still going strong.

I moved out of home this year and am adjusting to being a real grown up now. My Dad is having more issues adjusting than me and will still ring me up to make sure I am doing usual things like washing the dishes and doing the ironing. It's very sweet.

I have two sisters. One is a dancer. She dances on cruise ships. The other one is chronically ill, so I still go home as often as I can to help my parents look after her.

I love to read and have a big library of books. I also play the Recorder. I WAS going to take it to university but couldn't for the life of me figure out what I was meant to do with a degree in the Recorder hee hee. I write some music too, but not too often.

For sports, I do rock climbing (though I haven't been this year yet...) and just stated to play badminton (emphasis on the BAD!)

Cheers

Xyphir

Mark

I teach in a rural school on the Navajo Nation. I grew up on the Navajo Nation and started teaching in the district I attended. I now teach 30 miles from where I grew up. I have only taught 5th and sixth grade. No other opportunities popped up to move grade levels. I am hoping to be the K-8 academic coach this year. In the past I was a night clerk, anthropologist, cab driver, substitute, and student. I have a Masters in reading and literacy, and have started my PhD in Eductional Leadership with a focus on school impprovement and curriculum change (and getting my butt whipped by the course work)

Personal

I have a wife, 2 sons (4 and 1) five dogs, and what ever rescue mutt who hangs in our front yard waiting to continue their journey on the doggie underground railroad. Right now their is a momma dog and her five very young pups. I am an avid photographer and prefer older cameras. Right now the camera of choice is a 70 year old 8x10 view camera. The wife keeps reminding me that I have too many cameras and they take up a lot of space. last count was 10.

I am trying to figure out watercolor, but not very successfully.

I am going into my second year of teaching in a residentail school. My classroom currently consists of 6 boys ages 13-20, a TA and 3 support staff. I love where I work, even though it can be challenging on some days. I am currently working on starting a teacher/parent group for the school, a year book, and a health/sex ed. curriculum along with all of my other daily requirements.

When I get home from my 40 minute commute I have waiting for me: my other-half of almost 9 years, 3 dogs (actually 4 but one is his brothers dog), 2 cats, 19 chinchillas and some fish. I find I don't physically feel like I have time for hobbies. And some days I'm not sure which is more stressful my boys at school or my dogs at home getting into trouble.

Last year Joe (my other-half) & I moved from a small apartment downstate to our house upstate. We live within minutes of his grandmother and my parents so it's nice to be able to visit with family at any point. It's also nice to have family close so that some day, hopefully in the near future I have built in babysitters!