My Story
I guess I have always known ever since I was a little girl that I would be a teacher. My parents were both teachers, and I looked up to them a lot. My Grandpa G. was a principal and my Grandma was a home-ec teacher. I guess it was in my blood to follow in their footsteps. One Christmas, I received a chalkboard as a gift, and I loved it! I would come home from school and “teach” my younger sister everything I learned in school that day. If she was busy or didn’t want to play, I would teach my dolls and stuffed animals. Sometimes my dad would play the role of student named Marty. I had a lot of fun. As I went through my middle and high school years I really enjoyed school and my teachers. I was in tutoring, and I enjoyed helping my classmates learn new things. I helped my mom teach a Sunday school class, and I volunteered to help the middle school basketball team when my high school season was done. These experiences reaffirmed my desire to become a teacher and coach. During my college summers I worked for the Eau Claire Parks and Recreation as a playground leader, and I truly fell in love with the kids. I had some very enjoyable and memorable times that helped prepare me to work with kids. All of these experiences played a role in my journey to becoming a teacher. I had positive clinical and student teaching experiences set up through UW-La Crosse, and I was lucky to interview and get my first teaching job in Osceola, WI. My sister found the posting on the Internet, so I applied even though I didn’t even know where Osceola was located. I was hired as a fifth grade teacher and my first class was an amazing group of kids that I hold dear to my heart. They have now graduated, as this is my ninth year of teaching. I did move to 6th grade so I could stay at the middle school, and I am so glad I did. I work with the best team of teachers I could ever imagine. I love the middle schoolers, and the energy they bring to my room. While there are some days I feel overwhelmed, stressed, and yes, beat-down, there are other days where I feel joyful, proud, and like I have made a positive difference. I need to remember how lucky I am to have a job I love and people who I enjoy working with in my building.
Professional Vision Statement:
I want to teach my students how to learn, construct, and understand so that they feel empowered, prepared, and able to succeed on whatever path they choose to take in their life. I see my role as an educator to help students develop their academic skills, refine their beliefs and morals, and to provide them with opportunities to grow socially. I want to be a teacher who can identify and build on my students' strengths and foster growth within areas of weakness. I want to build them up academically and take them from where they are to where they can be. In order to accomplish these goals I need to recognize what each student needs from me and do my very best to meet their individual intellectual, social, physical, and emotional needs. If I can do these things I feel I will have the chance to impact each of my students in a positive and meaningful manner, and they will be better off in some way because of our time together.
I hope that my former students will look back on their middle school years with a happy heart filled with many fond memories. I hope their experience will have consisted of academic struggles that made them stronger and wiser. I hope their time at the middle school included mistakes which they learned from and which shaped them into the person they became. I hope they will remember a deep sense of accomplishment after meeting their personal goals in the classroom and on the basketball court. I hope they remember the friendships they made along the way, the good times they shared, and the tough days they made it through together. I hope they will treasure the Chieftain bond they created with classmates, teachers, and coaches that will last a lifetime. It is my hope that my students will appreciate their journey, and they will feel confident to follow their dreams and achieve many personal legends. And, if they can do these things, I will have achieved a personal legend of my own.
I hope that my former students will look back on their middle school years with a happy heart filled with many fond memories. I hope their experience will have consisted of academic struggles that made them stronger and wiser. I hope their time at the middle school included mistakes which they learned from and which shaped them into the person they became. I hope they will remember a deep sense of accomplishment after meeting their personal goals in the classroom and on the basketball court. I hope they remember the friendships they made along the way, the good times they shared, and the tough days they made it through together. I hope they will treasure the Chieftain bond they created with classmates, teachers, and coaches that will last a lifetime. It is my hope that my students will appreciate their journey, and they will feel confident to follow their dreams and achieve many personal legends. And, if they can do these things, I will have achieved a personal legend of my own.
