Well, isn't this embarassing

This is a little bit about me.

I am 26 years old . . no, I am 27. Give me a minute to figure out what year it is and do some math. . .27 years old for sure. When I was about 25 years old, people kept asking if I was 28, 30, 32 years old; I guess I had to decide that my age didn't matter, and now I cannot even remember my own age.

So, I am 26 years old. I have five beautiful smart extraordinary older sisters, an interesting older brother, and a successful and tall younger brother. And obviously, a mom and dad. The boys are the bookends, unfortunately for them. Jimmy had to take care of his little sisters and Mike had to play dolls and dress-up with his older sister...me. I was raised in Table Rock Village, Wyoming. Half of the village has been moved elsewhere now. My house--a 2 story, four bed and two bath and 2 car garage home--now stands approx 50 miles from where it was built.

This is not completely out of the ordinary, especially for Wyoming. Although land has, historically, always been cheap in Wyoming, you have to bring in all of the materials to build your home...unless you can make an awesome home out of sagebrush. So when towns die (coal mining towns), and the families move, the houses move away too. There are almost always remains, of course. If you look at Table Rock village on the internet, there are some interesting comments about it by people who have discovered the remains and wonder what went on there. Same thing with other ghost towns, I think.

So, I currently live in Salem, OR. I earned by BA in English (lit) at SFSU in 2008 and have been wandering about, wondering what to do for the last few years. One day I discovered that I was fairly content with my job. . . something that would have been inconceivable only a few years ago. I knew it was time for a change.

One option I considered when I first graduated had been to go into teaching. Because every state differs on who they will allow to teach, I had planned to sub-teach and earn my degree at the same time. The same thing was not possible here. I have been volunteering with Waldo Middle School (the newcomer center!) since November. One day I realized I had no money in my checking account because I'd taken off too many days to volunteer. That is how much fun I was having.

It seems that the one thing that is always constant in my family is school. Someone is always going to school, someone is always teaching or subsituting, and someone is about to graduate or return to school. I know how important it is to my mother that I have a job that is respectable. Volunteering reminded me how much I enjoy using my brain.

Lately, I have considered the wage disparity between males/females and the problems of language instruction in schools. These topics are most exiting to me currently.

I initially chose HS/MS as my teaching level because to me, HS is the closest you can get to college without actually being a professor. MS was added to make me more hire-able. However, now that I have had such fun in the middle school areas-- especially with ESL students!!--I have reconsidered my position. The real question I have for myself is, will I be able to remember all of the steps it takes to learn something (in order to teach it, as in middle school), or should I figure that I'd be better off teaching the things that I do remember?