Autobiography...Get your popcorn!

My life has been a series of moves and changes. I would say that there is some pattern to the madness, or some kind of direct line through the moving and school changes and family shifting; however, there is just not. The only way to begin this quest, is to start at the beginning and hope that I can remember it all.
I am the middle child of three. My older sister, Denise, is 7 years older than me, and my younger sister, Delaney, is 10 years younger. My mother’s name is Dianne and she is a liberal hippy from Tillamook Oregon who loves gardening and painting. My older sister and I share the same father, Dennis, who was a volunteer soldier for the Vietnam War, enlisting when he was 17. Needless to say, the spheres of cultural influence were vastly different when I grew up.
My parents were divorced when I was 5. I lived with my mom and my older sister, moving from our family home in Columbia City to Corvallis in the middle of my kindergarten year in Elementary. Corvallis had 7 elementary schools at the time when we first moved there and by the time my dad got parental custody of me when I was 9, I had been enrolled in 5 out of the 7 schools. We moved a lot. I can remember that this was incredibly challenging for me as a student to keep up in the classroom because during the formative years of making friends and establishing relationships with teachers and staff, I was never given the time. When I was supposed to be learning and discovering who I was, I was too busy looking over my shoulder at my last school while being pushed through the door of a new classroom.
During this flux of moving, I latched on to my older sister Denise as my only friend. She was constant and always there in my life, no matter which school I was going to next. I remember being that little annoying brother who would tag along with the older sister and her friends. It really didn't matter to me at the time; she was still there, even if she might not have wanted me around. She ran away from home twice while we lived in Corvallis: once for a week, once for a couple of months.
We weren't poor, but we were certainly low income. We survived on food stamps and my moms tenacious attitude towards making the best of any situation. I don’t remember wanting for anything or being without, but I do remember my mom working a lot and being on my own frequently. I became quick at adapting to new and different situations, and really quick at making friends and not letting them get that close. I was a good student, placed in TAG at all my schools, but never really cared a lot about classes.
When I was 9, my dad petitioned and received custody of me during the middle of the school year. I moved from Corvallis to Canby to live with him and my grandmother for a short time and then we moved to Central Point in Southern Oregon to live with my dad wife. That year, I attended 3 different schools. Corvallis was a diverse technology town in the burgeoning wake of Hewlett Packard's success as a company; the people were well educated, the town had a thriving art culture, and the people were from many varied backgrounds. Central Point, however, was rural and farm-based with little minority influence on the community except for the migrant workers who tended the farms. Life settled in for a while as we lived in Central Point until I was in 8th grade, and then we moved again back to Canby where I began another school district.
I went to North Marion, a small rural school district with 100 kids in my class, primarily white, primarily lower class, real blue collar people. I found myself really good at the adapting game by this point after so many moves and I shifted my personality one more time, thinking this would be the last move. The schooling and teaching was much harder at N.M. than at previous schools and I received my first F on a progress report here. My English teacher didn’t mind that I joined class 8 weeks late, she failed me after my fifth day in class because I wasn’t caught up with a 8 weeks worth of work in English. I thought this was a bit harsh, but it pushed me to be the best in the class. We settled into Aurora just long enough to plan the next move.
My junior year of High School, I was off to South Salem. I went from a primarily lower class environment, to one of the wealthiest, least-impoverished, most-successful schools in Salem. My graduating class from South Salem had more students in it than my whole High School at North Marion. For me, this was a tremendous culture shock; especially considering that we moved -- yet again -- after school had already begun. I was forced to integrate very quickly into classes that I was unfamiliar with and put myself into social situations that were foreign to me. At this point though, I was a pro. Integrating into a new social situation was easy for me. I just had to pick a personality and go with it.
I continued on at South Salem through graduation, made some really great friends and had some of the best teachers of my career. It was during my junior year at South that I had an amazing American Lit teacher who really opened my eyes to the beauty in books. Reading really wasn’t my strong suit up until that point, I made it through most of my previous classes by just skimming and not really caring; but Mr. Putnam really challenged me to look deeper. He taught us books that he had an obvious passion for and related lessons to us through reflection and introspection. My favorite part of classes were the shorter days where he would bring in short stories from his favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut (now my favorite author), and just read to us. I have since read every book by Vonnegut. The educational environment at South was top-notch. By far, the best quality of teachers and classroom culture that I had been in, and I have plenty to reflect upon. It is this school, and Mr. Putnman, that made me first think about teaching as a profession.
After High School, I attended two years at Chemeketa Community College in Salem. I obtained a full ride scholarship from the school for participating in Student Government both years, holding down that as a job and working 30-plus hours a week at Costco and acting and being a newlywed. I married my High School sweetheart at the age of 19. Together, we continued my tradition of moving around, leaping from apartment to apartment in Salem every year. There was never an apartment that we were in for more than 12 months.
After graduating from Chemeketa with honors in 2000, both my wife and I transferred to Western Oregon University. She pursued her Bachelor’s in Ed there, and I turned my attention to Literature and Theatre: my two great passions. I still worked at Costco, and now I was acting in a play every term, working on campus in the Set Design shop and carrying 16 or more credits. Life kept me busy.
Western Oregon was one of the greatest experiences of my life. The small classroom size and small, close-knit English department were great communities for learning. Professors were more like peers and less like instructors. I truly felt that, in my classes, we were there to have dialogue. Dr. Yehnert, someone I consider not only as a mentor and friend, but as a shining example of the kind of teacher I want to be, had the easiest time eliciting conversation from students. I remember wanting to keep ahead on books in his classes and really poor myself into the text because I felt valued as a member of the classroom community. I thought that we were all on an exploration of the text and although Dr. Yehnert might have had a goal or direction in mind, he could always bring us and guide our classroom discussions in that direction. He was flawless at this style. As a teacher, this is how I want my students to feel because it motivated me to be a better learner, to be more diligent with my studies and give more time to formulating better papers.
After graduating from Western with a Bachelor’s of Arts in English, I decided that it was time to take a break from academia and pursue Costco as an option. By this time, I had worked there for 5 years and I was a little burnt out on classes, so there were opportunities to move up in the company and I decided to pursue that as a goal and see where I could go. Life became rockier at that point personally for me; I got a divorce from my first wife, and had to start over again. Friends faded away and future academic achievement went on the back burner. Life was full of Costco.
Until two years ago, when I attained a position in management. I thought that management would give me a great opportunity to teach my employees and satiate that desire to educate. It did for a while, however, the thanklessness and the lack of personal fulfillment that came with the territory started to sink in. I decided that it was time to do something for myself. I started acting with a professional theater company in Hillsboro and started volunteering with McKay High School’s Theater Department here in Salem. Rediscovering the passion that I had for both acting and for teaching children helped me to refocus and bring me to where I am now...pursuing my M.A.T. at Willamette University.
Looking back on my life and all the experiences that I’ve been through, all the lessons that I’ve learned, all the teachers I’ve had and different environments that I’ve lived in, I am not surprised that I am as focused on achieving this goal as I am. I want to give back to students. I feel like life has been so full for a reason, without all these experiences and without all the heartache, I wouldn’t be able to relate to so many situations that are going to come my way as a teacher. My heart is for the “at risk” kids (although I despise that label) because looking back on my academic history, I easily could have been one of them. I want to help them to realize -- as I did -- that you can find yourself in classes, you can find a lifelong passion and run with it. I am truly thankful for my life because it has brought me here, to a position and a mindset ready to be a teacher.

Equity Reflection 1.11-13

1.11 -- Dale Spender's new interpretation brings a completely new perspective on larger social issues within society and challenges her listeners to do something about it. There is no comfort level of sitting back and waiting for society to catch up with the times and with established thought to adapt on its own. No, Spender wants people who disagree with social norms to challenge and adapt, to move and change thought.
As teachers, we can't sit and wait for the change in education philosophy to come to us, we have to institute it ourselves. If there is inequality in our classrooms (perceived or real) we need to do something about it. If there is bias in our texts, then we need to find the counter opinion and make sure that we are not merely waiting for change to happen but to be confident and brave enough to do it ourselves.

1.12 -- What is the main purpose of schools? to educate and prepare children for the future.
How does this purpose relate to or serve a diverse society? Society is changing and becoming more diverse each day, the role of the school is to educate children about how to be productive within this ever-changing world.
How does this purpose relate to or serve a socially stratified society? Children need to see and be able to appreciate equality amongst all stratospheres within society.
What are the implications of what you wrote above for the work of a teacher? A teacher needs to promote diversity in lessons and in the classroom environment. They need to recognize the diverse needs of their students and harbor dialogue amongst all students through engaging lessons and challenging topics. There is no room for inequality in the work of a teacher.

1.13 -- As a teacher I envision myself...as someone who approaches my topic area from a socially neutral standpoint and harbors open thinking from all students about the topic. I want my students to become free-thinkers and form ideas that will shape their future and the future of society as a whole. I will listen and respect their diverse needs and prepare my lessons accordingly. I want my classroom to be a haven for free-thought without judgment or condescension and that will take cooperation between the students and myself.

Equity Reflection 1.1-1.4

1.1 -- I want to become the teacher who makes literature engaging for my students, who pushes them to read and ultimately think cricially about life. I want to help students achieve more than what they or society "think" they can.

1.2 -- What I mean by...
love(ing) children means ... that I will do whatever it takes to teach them. That I will acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses and value both equally.
want(ing) to help students means ... being willing to listen to their individual needs and respond in kind with my lessons.
another reason I want to teach includes ... I know what it's like to be from a hard background. I can relate to students who are struggling and have a heart for what their lives are like.

1.3 -- loving children will sustain me if ... I only look at the positive aspects of what is going on in the classroom. won't sustain me if ... it's the only thing that I hold on to as a teacher. aside: I don't think that love of children alone can sustain me as a teacher. I think that it is certainly a part of my philosophy, however, not the primary driving force behind wanting to teach. Therefore, I'm not relying upon that factor alone to carry me through this challenging profession.
wanting to help students will sustain me if ... I pour myself into helping them regardless of their solicitation or desire for that help. I have to selflessly approach wanting to help them and focus on what they need by getting them to speak and participate. won't sustain me if ... I can't connect with the students. If nothing I do breaks through, I can see how it would be hard to continue to only want to "help" them.

1.4 -- Similarities between the statements: Both focus on the individual child. Teaching to each student, not just the "good" few.
Differences between the statements: The statement from Hammond, Wise, and Klein is much more specific in regards to approach and rationale behind their philosophy. There are specific definitions to the "love" and "help" they want for their students. It also talks about the discovery element of teaching.