Howdy! My name is Allison Mendez-Morphis, and this is my second semester of student teaching. I go to IUN, have been for too many years. My husband and I live in LaPorte with our two kitties, corn snake, and...his parents. We've had our own place for the past four years, but times are hard now. I'm ecstatic to have a career; though teaching isn't what I imagined many years ago, it's working out well. Last semester was nuts at the middle school as I worked out the kinks of learning my new job.
I'm a multitasking master, by necessity-not choice. I must juggle student teaching, 10.5 credit hours, waitressing (servers get paid 2.13/hr, so it really does pay to be nice in some cases), all of our bills, and keeping up appearances at home and work. Just a taste of things to come after high school....
Effective communication is my focus. In my classroom, we discuss ideas, opinions, and knowledge. When I was in high school, I felt incredibly bored, frustrated, and annoyed. I did learn things, but there was a lot of "stuff" that got in the way. I really discovered who I am in college. My thoughts and ideas were listened to, discussed, built upon, and taken in many new directions. This is what I want to bring into classrooms; I will basically be learning from your learning, which is a nice job description compared to what I've done in the past.
"Don't let your education get in the way of your learning."--Mark Twain
