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Young Child
I was born in 1963 and had the benefit of having parents who read to me constantly. We made weekly trips to the library and would come home with a huge stack of books. I loved reading! -
Reading to younger siblings
As the oldest sibling, I read to my younger brother. I'm eight years older than him. As I got older, I found the stories a little boring and I would try to cut them short. He would take notice so we came up with a game where I would leave out words that he would fill in. It amazed me when he began recognizing words. -
Favorite Book
In 8th grade, I discovered my favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Where she describes Atticus leaving the courtroom after Tom Robinson's trial ends is one of my favorite descriptive passages. -
AP English
I took AP English in my senior year of high school. It exposed me to a wonderful array of literature and truly prepared me for college. My professor used to give us quizzes he called "impromptus" that helped me refine my writing skills. -
Civil Engineering
I studied Civil Engineering at the University of Maryland. I had to become adept at technical reading and I had to learn to write up detailed science experiments in physics and chemistry. My introduction to technology included using a mainframe computer where we had to make punch cards to run our Fortran programs. -
I Have a Dream
In my college English class, we read and analyzed Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. I learned that he carefully chose each word so that his message would be better received by white Americans. It is one of the most powerful things I have read and led me to explore some of his other writings. -
My Career
I took a job as a construction manager after graduating from UMD. My job required me to interpret contract documents and monitor the contractor's progress. Contract specifications include technical details and legal requirements for both parties. Every word matters! -
Mom!
My first son was born in 1991 and my second came along in 1996. I had loved being read to as a child and one of my favorite things as a mom was reading with my boys. We lived a block from the library so we were frequent visitors. Their reward for a good report card was a trip to Borders. Every day ended with a snuggle and a good book at bedtime. -
Career change! Now I'm a teacher!
My son started preschool in 1984 and I was a frequent volunteer. I discovered that I really wanted to work with young children. I became a teacher assistant in 2004 and saw our program morph over the years as we became accredited in 2009. We believe in play based learning but we have seen a push to focus on literacy as society asks children to be ready to read in kindergarten. We sometimes struggle with how much is too much at this tender age. -
Technology
In my 57 years, I have seen a lot of advances. While I am moderately computer literate, it can be intimidating when new technology comes along. It is intimidating watching my kids, grandkids and students using all of this with ease. Whenever I feel that they are being a little condescending if I ask for help, I remind them that I taught them to use utensils.
