All About Me

After reading all the interesting posts, I have decided to give this blogging "thing" a try. My childhood roots are in a small town in rural, western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Before I began high school, my family moved to Lafayette. This created some turmoil in my adolescent years. I believe I claimed my dad had "ruined" my life for at least a year. Now, I am thankful we moved here, as I met and married my husband, after dating through high school. We have been married for eleven years and have three, active, wonderful sons. Jayden is 10 (4th grade,) Peyton will turn seven in a few weeks (first grade,) and Jackson is five and attends Crestview Preschool. The boys go to Wea Ridge Elementary, on the south side of Lafayette, where I am also the VP of PTO. We enjoy boating and swimming in our pool at home in the summer and attending all of the boys sporting events. Combined they play baseball, basketball, football, soccer and have a bowling team. My oldest son had hip surgery this fall and has a screw on each side of his hip for a bone disorder. This has been hard for him to deal with, as he can't run for possibly a few years, he was very athletic. He has joined a swim team, though, which he is doing very well in. Sorry....I could go on and on about my kids, but now for more about ME.

I graduated from Purdue with a B.A. in Public Relations, with a minor in English. I worked for a short time at the Journal and Courier as the assistant to the Opinions Editor. After having Peyton, I decided to be a full time mom, something I wouldn't change for anything. Of course, I couldn't have done this without the support of my hard working, husband. Alan is self employed as a building contractor. He also owns a landscaping business and some rental property. While at home, I dabbled in various creative jobs. I held board positions in a MOMS Club, organizing service projects etc., did freelance writing for The Lafayette Leader, and wrote quizzes for Scholastic Book Company (used in the Accelerated Reader Program locally and nationally.) With Jackson approaching Kindergarten, it was time for me to decide my future career. While I love writing, I wanted to pursue that interest and my love of books, along with my desire to work with youth. Thus, I will begin the Transition to Teaching Program next fall in secondary English. This year, I began taking graduate courses in Literature to help beef up my background. I plan to apply these to the masters in English Education. I would love to use my journalistic background in teaching, possibly teaching journalism, communication or speech. These writing and public speaking skills are something that every student can use, no matter what career path they take.

Because I have yet to actually teach in a secondary classroom, I was excited to see so many teachers in Tuesday's class. I hope to learn a lot from your experiences. Recently, I read a lot of YA books while writing quizzes for Scholastic (some great and many terrible, not even worth reading.) Probably, the best book I wrote a quiz for was from a new author, Blue Balliette, The Wright 3, her first book was Chasing Vermeer. They have been called The Da Vinchi Code for kids. A modern well written book for 9 to 12 year olds. The Wright 3, involves a mystery surrounding a Frank Lolyd Wright House, and contains issues of friendship, divorce and different ethic backgrounds. As a kid, I loved historical fiction ( I was kind of nerdy about books) I loved The Little House on the Prairie series, Anne of Green Gables series, The Diary of Anne Frank and even Mark Twain novels.

Staci