-
Parents
My Parents did a great job of reading to me. We have multiple home videos of me spelling and reading to them back. I did not go to a public preschool. My mother was a grade school teacher when I was born. She resigned when my brother two years younger than me was born. This allowed her the chance to nurture us. Side note: My mother is in her 6th year back teaching in that same local grade school. -
Sunday School
Once I was old enough, I began going to Sunday School at church. While I didn't realize it at the time, I was stengthing a lot of my literacy skills. I would be read to from the Bible. Then we would talk about what we learned. At a young age, I was learning to comprehend. -
Begin Grade School
The beginning of Ell-Saline elementary school was my first truly structured oppurtunity to grow. Here is where I was able to begin to build off the basics my mother had taught me at home. -
Accelerated Reader
As my second grade year continued on, I was found to have a really high reading ability. I started to really enjoy reading different kinds of books. Our school was a part of the Accelerated Reader program. I was always top 2 or 3 in the class in reading comprehension throught that program. -
Series of Unfortunate Events
Around 4th grade I began to really get into the "Series of Unfortunate Events" book series. This is significant becuase it was the first book series I read all the way through. I am thankful that back at my house we did not have cable TV. Much of my time was spent reading. -
Short Stories
In 6th grade, I wrote two 10 page short story. It was not a part of any assignment we were given. I was loving the books I was reading and had some ideas I thought would be interesting to write about. This is a sifnificant moment because it was the first time I ventured to write something that was completely my own. A couple interesting facts include me getting two other classmates of mine to edit and illustrate the two books. Back at my parent's house, I still have the books today! -
Newspaper
In 8th grade, I began driving to school. It was at this time I began to enjoy reading the newspaper. I became in touch with local events and read a different style than I had ever read before. This broadended my literacy background and openend doors for books I would read in the future -
High School Composition Class
My senior year of high school, I took a dual credit English Composition class. This class was the first time I truly felt challenged in writing. This is both a positive and a negative. When it came time to leave for college I was a little behind at writing college level papers. Going back, I wish I would have been challenged more in writing while in high school. -
Began school at UNI: Analysis of Social Issues Class
After a two year stint at a community college, I got a scholarship to play football at the University of Northern Iowa. I will be forever grateful that football was the gate to a great education. Academically, it was a wakeup immediately. My first class was called Analysis of Social Issues. I soon found out all this class entailed was reading books and analyzing them. I struggled for the first half of the class. It was a wake up call for me. I found out I was not as good at writing as I thought. -
Angelo State Graduate School
I began graduate school last semester. Similarily to when I began at UNI, it has been a challenge. So far I have enjoyed the reading that I have done and how my mind has been stretched. I am excited to continue learning!
