Introduce yourself!! (Week 1)

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

I am a Florida State University Graduate and several other places as well, but FSU is my undergraduate degree and so it is near and dear to my heart. I am an educator, teacher, mother, wife, daughter, student, artist, technology nut, Mac evangelist and who knows what else. I am beginning a new position on campus in addition to teacher. I am the director of the Technology Learning Commons (new on campus).

School starts in a week as of this writing and we are not nearly ready to open, the construction is incomplete, the website is incomplete, I have a few student workers hired that begin Tuesday, but need to hire more, all the equipments has not arrived, etc. Anyway, not sure I know exactly what I am doing, but am learning and taking it a step at a time and praying!!! Attached find the brochure explaining the Technology Learning Commons.

[sharon stockton]

Hi, I'm Sharon from Meade, KS. I grew up on a farm in N.E. Kansas by Topeka. Now I live on a farm in S.W. Kansas with my husband and two children ages 9 and 11. We have a lot of animals on the farm and my daughter shows every animal that she possibly can in 4-H. I graduated from KSU in Animal Science many years ago and had a career in animal agriculture. I was lucky enough to become a stay-at-home mom when I had my children. A few years ago I began substitute teaching and that is when I fell in love with all children, not just my own. I want to use my brain, and have a career when my children are grown and gone so I won't miss them quite so much. I also need to have my summers off as much as possible because I want to spend them with my children and I am very busy during 4-H fair season as I am a club leader. I have had a lot of fun and challenges going back to college the last couple of years. I have gone to classes on the Seward County Community College Campus, and done a lot of online and ITV classes. I really enjoy the online classes the most because I can be home with my family more. I have an older (3 or 4 years old?) Dell PC but have a new Dell laptop as a back up if this one dies

[Megan Ricke]

I have a twin sister,her name is Maggie and I also have a younger sister, Kaitlin. I got married in March, to Nick, we have been together ever since we graduated from highschool, and that was five years ago. I love animals, especially horses and dogs. My dogs names are Cowgirl and Jessie James. They are a blast, they always make me laugh. This spring I will graduate with a degree in elementary education. I am so excited, I will be really happy to know that I won't have to take any more classes!!

I can't believe that school has already started, it seemed like our summer break was so short. Of course, the fact that my husband broke his ankle when a horse fell on him this summer didn't help matters any. But we made it through okay.

[aconnolly]

Hello to everyone! I am Ashley Connolly. I live in Lakin, KS and I am a substitute teacher. This is my last year in the elementary education program and I can not wait to graduate. I will student teach in January and be done in May. I am so excited about being a teacher. My husband graduated from Oklahoma Wesleyan University. That is where we met. He is now a jailor and is going to the police academy in September. He will be there until December. I will Miss him :( When he comes back he will be a police officer. He is excited. I am excited for him. When we have money (haha) we plan on traveling. Right now I am really wanting to go to Italy and Hawaii. My goal is to go somewhere amazing before we start having a family. Well, that is me!

[Marci Edgington]

Hello, I'm Marci Edgington. I grew up and live on a farm south of Lakin. I am a single mother of a beautiful little girl. This is my last semester before I student teach in January. I am so excited. I can not wait to be done with my degree so I can teach students. Right now I substitute teach, a full time student, and work on the family farm. Between all of this and raising my daughter I don't have much time for anything else, such as crafting, cross stitching, woodworking, basket weaving, or riding my ATV. Before I began my teaching degree, I earned a degree in Accounting and had previously worked at a tax office and then as an office manager at a county health department.

[nikki hernandez]

Hi my name is Nikki Hernandez. I am a senior at FHSU and majoring in Elementary Education. I now live in Garden City, KS with my new son, Keedrin, and fiance Avery. Avery is finishing his degree this year in Psychology and we are both excited to get done. I enjoy reading and learning new things although technology is not my favorite, it is interesting. I can't wait to teach and hope to have k-2nd!!! I spend most of my time with my family and enjoying life itself.

[Joleen Schoenthaler]

Hi, I'm Joleen Schoenthaler from WaKeeney, KS. I grew up here and upon high school graduation attended Fort Hays State University. I decided to transfer to Barton County Community College and attend the Medical Lab Technician Program. I graduated in 1994 and started working at the hospital here in WaKeeney. After a few years working, I decided that I wanted to finish my degree in teaching. I knew that high school teaching was not for me so I chose elementary ed instead. My love for science convinced me to finish my endorsement in middle level science. My high school biology teacher is the one who got me interested in the science field. I have always liked teaching and so here I am doing what I should have done to begin with. I am looking forward to learning how to integrate technology into my science lessons. I have a Dell XPS 400 which is a gaming computer.

[Dana Setter]

Hi to you all! I am Dana Setter and am a senior at FHSU in the Elementary Education Program. I work for Stafford USD #349 as a Teacher's Aide, Substitute, and Scholor's Bowl coach for high school and middle school. I have 3 children (16, 14, 4) that are very active and when I'm not working or doing homework, I am involved with them. I can't wait until graduation next spring and look forward to starting my teaching career. I enjoy cooking, reading, fishing, our horses and dogs, vegetable gardening, faux painting, and spending time with my family.

[Amanda Legleiter]

Hi, I am Amanda Legleiter. I grew up in Kirwin,KS, its a really small town. I now live in KC, which is total culture shock. I have been married for 4 years and we have two schnauzers, Dexter and Dante. I graduated from FHSU with a BS degree in Speech and Language Pathology. I have decided to go into Elementary Education instead of a Master's in SLP.
I am hoping and praying that I can figure everything out in this class. I love computers and cant wait to start learning.

[Amber ONeal]

I my name is Amber O'Neal. I am senior at Fort Hays State University majoring in Elementary Education. This is my last semester at Fort Hays State University before I do my student teaching in the spring semester. I plan on moving back to Dodge City (which is where I am from) to student teach. As far back as I can remember I've always wanted to be a teacher and have many great influences in my life to inspire me along this journey. I currently have a dell laptop running on windows Xp.

[Denise Siemens]

Hi everyone, I’m Denise Siemens and will be your online classmate for the fall semester. I’ve lived in Kansas my entire life. Born in Parsons, Kansas, then moved to Wichita where I attended elementary school, later moving to Newton where I finished elementary, middle, and secondary school. I attended Bethel College and received a B.A., in Art. I’ve been employed as a print designer for almost 20 years (through freelance, agency, and a design group) and wanted to make a change in careers. I currently live outside of Salina.

It wasn’t until later in life that I gained an appreciation for our public education system. Much of this stemmed from getting to know more about third world countries where it’s actually a luxury and privilege to receive an education. In considering what education does for the mind, as well as monetary gains, I knew that education was the industry that I would be most happy being a part of and knowing that my time was well spent can only be an added bonus for me. For this reason, I’m getting certified to teach K-6 elementary education with a K-12 art endorsement. My B.S. in elementary education has been done entirely through online and ITV courses. I’ll be student teaching in Spring 2008.

The computer I’ll be using is just a little over a year old and uses the Windows XP operating system. Just until a few years ago, I was strictly a Mac user but through some trials and tribulations I have gotten use to using a PC. So far so good!

[Laura Shaw]

Hello! My name is Laura Shaw, and I'm a senior in elementary education. It feels good to be starting my last semester before student teaching. =) I am taking classes on campus, but I usually try to take one or two virtual college classes along with my on-campus classes. My computer is an IBM laptop with Windows XP. I will also probably spend a lot of time in the IRC on their computers between classes. I grew up in Hoxie, Kansas, and am the youngest of two children. I am going to be an elementary teacher because it is a very rewarding job. I love the feeling of making a difference in someone's life. After teaching for a few years, I want to go back to school to get my masters in school counseling. I'll be living in Hays for one more semester before moving to Weskan to student teach and be closer to my boyfriend. His name is Tucker, and he graduated from FHSU in December with a degree in agronomy.

[Gina Aurand]

Hi! My name is Gina Aurand. I live in North Central Kansas, almost in Nebraska. I have a degree in Food Science from KSU, but for the past 12 years have been a stay-at-home mom. I have four children ages 12,9,7,and 4. I have been a substitute teacher for the past two years. With school and kids my hobbies have gone to the wayside. I enjoy being active in my children's activities. As the oldest of 6 children I have always had kids around me and enjoyed them. I thought about teaching my first time in college, but both of my parents had education degrees and strongly discouraged it. Now though I feel it offers me the best of both worlds, I get to work with children and still be on a similar schedule to my own kids so that I don't miss out on their activities or have to put them in daycare on a regular basis. This is my last semester of classes and I student teach in the spring. Besides k-6, I am going to get a middle school science endorsement. That would be my dream teaching job. However, I will take what I can get, since my husband farms my options for jobs are limited. I am not great with technology. I enjoy it when it works, but I don't seem to have the time or patience it takes to sit and play with it. I think that this will definitely be my hardest class of all my teaching requirements. To be honest I am a little stressed over it. I do realize that kids are great at it and I need to incorporate technology into my room whenever possible. My computer is a Dell Optiplex 210L. The problem, unfortunately, doesn't usually seem to be with my computer, but rather the operator.