Personal
- How did you and Andy (my husband) meet? Andy and I met during our sophomore year of college when he moved into the room across the hall from me. Andy's roommate Will likes to take credit for us getting together, since he was the one who encouraged Andy to move in with him when things didn't work out with his first roommate.
- What was your wedding like? It was awesome, you can see some pictures here.
- Why did you start blogging? After my first year of teaching my mentor teacher encouraged me to blog as a way to keep track my ideas, thoughts, successes and failures through my second year of teaching and to be able to reflect back. This blog obviously turned out to be much more about my life in general than just teaching, but I'm ok with that.
- What is your size/height/weight? Unless you are buying or making me an awesome article of clothing, I'm not sure why you need to know this.
- Where else can I find you online? Twitter, class wiki, or my personal wiki.
Teaching
- Why did you decide to become a teacher? I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather do. When I was young I always liked helping other people and teaching them new things. Through a variety of summer jobs/internships I was able to narrow down what type of teaching I wanted to do. I love my job, and am so happy that I made a good career choice. I never dread going to work in the mornings (unless it should be a snow day and they didn't call it . . .) and never wonder what my purpose is.
- How do I become a teacher? This really depends on what state you're in and what you want to teach. Check out your state's department of education to find out. If you want to teach at a private school the requirements are usually different, and you may not need a license to be hired. I became a licensed teacher through the traditional route: I received my bachelor's degree in secondary education/history (which included student teaching), took the state test, and then submitted all that paperwork and received my license. There are tons of alternatives such as peer review, and sometimes schools can get you a waiver so you can teach without a license, so if you really want to teach there are many avenues you can explore.
- Have you ever had a student you hated? Honestly, no. I've certainly had students that I've found challenging, difficult, or frustrating at times, but I've never had a student that I've hated, or even genuinely disliked. Despite whatever difficulties I may face with a student I've always found they have some redeeming qualities. I think that's true for people in general.
- What exactly do you teach? I teach five sections of freshmen (9th grade) world history. This year I have one honors classes and four regular level classes. The material I cover is from the Enlightenment period to modern day. This is a ton of stuff, and not a lot of time! I try to come up with unique ways to pack in as much of the relevant information as possible, but it can certainly be a challenge sometimes.
- Are the students ever mean to you? Yes, but I realize when students have bad attitudes or are angry it is rarely because of me or a result of something I did, it's probably from their home/personal life. I don't take it personally, if you do take rudeness/meanness personally you'll burn out very fast. I prefer to dwell on the happy moments.
- Have you ever broken up a fight between students? What was it like? Yes. It's not fun, fortunately I haven't had to do it many times. If you are going into teaching (especially at the secondary level) I highly recommend you undergo CPI training, which will teach you how to effectively deal with a stressful or potentially dangerous situation in the best way possible. Also, talk to your principal/school resource officer/union about training and protocol for these incidents. It's something that hopefully you'll never have to deal with, but you need to know what the school's protocol is if a fight breaks out, because in my experience it is very different depending on the school.
Knitting
- Who taught you to knit? My friend's mom taught me to knit when I was a senior in high school. My friend became very sick during our senior year and was home on bed rest. She was bored to tears, so her mom taught her to knit to give her something to do. When I visited her she was always knitting, so naturally I wanted to learn too. Once I was taught the basics there was no stopping me!
- What other crafts do you do besides knitting? My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was younger, and recently I picked that up again. I like to scrapbook, and I was taught how to use the sewing machine last year so hopefully I can work on that some more in the future.
- Can you make something for me? I could, but wouldn't you rather learn how to knit for yourself? Then you could make stuff for yourself and wouldn't need to ask me. If you want to learn to knit there are tons of online tutorials, books, and even classes offered.
- Do you sell your knitting? Some of my work is currently for sale at the Andover Book Store (I also teach knitting classes there if you're interested in learning). However, if you see something you're interested in on here feel free to contact me about purchasing it.
The Curls
- Is your hair naturally curly? Yes. It has been curly my entire life.
- Do you ever straighten it? Rarely. I like it curly.
- What does your hair feel like? It feels like hair. This is a weird question, I don't understand why I get asked it so often, or why people always want to touch my hair.
