We didn't give you the gift of life,
Life gave us the gift of you!
Family
My husband and I have been together over half of my life now. We married after college and shortly after adopted our oldest son. Later, 4 siblings found their way into our hearts and we adopted them as well.
Education
Education was my second career choice. Originally, I had planned to attend Hawaii Pacific and major in Marine Biology. However, meeting my future husband changed everything. I loved coaching children so I decided to stay in state and attend Ball State University with him. I majored in Elementary Education with a concentrate on mathematics. Let me tell you that college is difficult for someone that grew up hating school! This was a major factor in becoming a teacher to help students love learning.
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While staying at home with our youngest two children, I attended Ball State online and earned my Master's in Educational Psychology with a concentrate in human development.
Career
I always knew that I wanted to come back home after college and teach in my hometown school system. It took 5 years and 2 different schools before getting my dream job. I have been teaching third grade ever since. Third grade is the perfect grade (other than state testing...that's a nightmare). The students are independent and can do cool projects, but they still love school and their teacher! I also coach several different sports with children of all ages. It is a nice change of pace to get to spend time with the older children.
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Throughout my life I taught myself how to design things to make extra cash. I quickly discovered yet another passion- creating websites. I had to create a website for one of my classes. I spent hours on my website and my teacher was very impressed. I continued to build websites for my classroom, my teaching portfolio, recently for a non-profit organization, and now my own online store. I also design and sell scrapbook pages, teaching materials, crafts, furniture, and basically anything that I can make money selling.