Hello Again!

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.