Ok, let me try this!
1. My name is Stephanie.
2. I was born, raised, and schooled in Ohio.
3. After finishing a mass communication degree at Miami University (Ohio, not Florida!), I moved to Chicago to try life in a big city and ended up working for a large non-profit creating promotional materials for their twice-yearly conferences.
4. After about 5 years in this job, I realized that I wanted to do something besides sit at a desk all day, and decided to go back to school and get my master's degree in elementary education. In the fall of 2008, I finished my master's degree and left my old job to pursue education.
5. I spent two years as a substitute teacher before being hired as an 8th grade language arts and science teacher at a northside Chicago public school. I feel so lucky to be working at my school, as the principal, staff and students are amazing!
6. I am still trying to figure out what kind of teacher I am, but the biggest thing I've learned in the past year and a half is that your ideals are often difficult to put into practice. But I'm still trying!
7. I love reading science and history nonfiction, playing with my cats, Coca-Cola, mint ice cream, road trips and knitting.
8. I am bored with talking about myself.
In my next post, I'll lay out some more information about my school and students. I am very excited to be working with Michelle, as I think that she will challenge me to move towards some of my "teaching ideals" that I have been letting fall to the side while I've been overwhelmed with figuring out exactly what being a teacher means. We have had several very giddy conversations so far, so I am looking forward to diving into the details and figuring everything out.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Hello!
To get the ball rolling on this arts integration/education/research/documentation project, I think I'll just start by introducing myself via a(n) ten eight fact list:
1. My name is Michelle.
2. I was born, raised, and schooled in Texas.
3. After finishing a film degree at the University of Texas at Austin, I spent five years as a freelancer doing video and editing work for various groups and projects around town while also decorating cakes at an amazing bakery and performing with a dance-stunt-jump roping group called Double Dutch Will Take You Higher.
4. In the fall of 2009 I moved to Chicago to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in the summer of 2011 I received my Masters degree in Art Education.
5. I work part time as an educational research assistant, which gives me ample opportunity to be inspired by and to learn from other teachers and artists around Chicago.
6. My personal interest in art education specifically lies in using creative processes to engage and empower young people. I'm trying, between everything else, to develop a program that will partner with existing arts organizations to focus on that goal using new media and Chicago civics.
7. I love: languages, technology, well-informed risk taking, traveling, people, taking photos, bikes, cats, making things, vegetarian cuisine, house slippers, and seltzer water.
8. Crafting an informative, non-boring ten point list is somewhat harder than I anticipated.
That all being said, I'm a very excitable person who is very excited to be embarking on this project. I feel like CAPE did a fantastic job matching me with the equally excitable and ambitious Stephanie, and while I'm so looking forward to starting our work with the kids, I'm just as excited about the work she and I will be exploring, constructing, and critiquing together. I have to remind myself not to say, "YAY-YAY-YAY!!!" constantly when I'm thinking about or describing to others the nature of this project (as it currently seems! (one of its greatest qualities is how open it is to shift and reinterpretation!)).
Whew! I'll leave this here for now, but maybe in other posts later we can get a Stephanie intro and lay out the basics of the kids, the environment, and the project ideas we have? And our inquiry questions? And maybe what we'll use this space for? And I'll try to maybe explore some of my own sub-questions about this work and what it might look like/accomplish/change/open/destroy. Quite a to-do list!
1. My name is Michelle.
2. I was born, raised, and schooled in Texas.
3. After finishing a film degree at the University of Texas at Austin, I spent five years as a freelancer doing video and editing work for various groups and projects around town while also decorating cakes at an amazing bakery and performing with a dance-stunt-jump roping group called Double Dutch Will Take You Higher.
4. In the fall of 2009 I moved to Chicago to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in the summer of 2011 I received my Masters degree in Art Education.
5. I work part time as an educational research assistant, which gives me ample opportunity to be inspired by and to learn from other teachers and artists around Chicago.
6. My personal interest in art education specifically lies in using creative processes to engage and empower young people. I'm trying, between everything else, to develop a program that will partner with existing arts organizations to focus on that goal using new media and Chicago civics.
7. I love: languages, technology, well-informed risk taking, traveling, people, taking photos, bikes, cats, making things, vegetarian cuisine, house slippers, and seltzer water.
8. Crafting an informative, non-boring ten point list is somewhat harder than I anticipated.
That all being said, I'm a very excitable person who is very excited to be embarking on this project. I feel like CAPE did a fantastic job matching me with the equally excitable and ambitious Stephanie, and while I'm so looking forward to starting our work with the kids, I'm just as excited about the work she and I will be exploring, constructing, and critiquing together. I have to remind myself not to say, "YAY-YAY-YAY!!!" constantly when I'm thinking about or describing to others the nature of this project (as it currently seems! (one of its greatest qualities is how open it is to shift and reinterpretation!)).
Whew! I'll leave this here for now, but maybe in other posts later we can get a Stephanie intro and lay out the basics of the kids, the environment, and the project ideas we have? And our inquiry questions? And maybe what we'll use this space for? And I'll try to maybe explore some of my own sub-questions about this work and what it might look like/accomplish/change/open/destroy. Quite a to-do list!
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