I was required to write a biograpy and email all my classmates in my Secondary Education class, one of the courses that I need to take as a part of the credential program.
It's been a while since I've written a lengthy introduction of myself and wanted to keep a record of it and decided to paste it here.
Subject: Bio and Picture
Message no. 56
Author: Helen
Date: Friday, February 9, 2007 3:19am
Hi everyone,
My name is Helen and I have come back after 12 years to finish my Bachelors
degree in music performance with piano being my instrument. Once I decided to come
back to finish, which turned out to be all but 8 units of music classes, I explored my
options and decided to start on a credential to become a music teacher for K-12.
During the 12 year Haitus, I have been married for 12 years come this summer and
have 3 daughters ages 8, 4 and 1. My wonderful husband is a colleague of mine who
attended CSUN with me back then and is in full support of me pursuing further education
for my future. For that, I will forever be indebted to him especially when I leave my
house everyday at 7:30am and come back more than 12 hours later at past 8pm.
When I come home, I find all my beautiful 3 girls have been fed and all and any traces of
having had a meal at the dining table is reduced to nothing but a neat pile of clean dishes
on the dish rack and the floors and dust-free and spotless.
I thank God every day and pray that my daughters will also be blessed to find a husband
who will be just like their Daddy~ ^^* I constantly tell my daughters and ofcourse my 8
year old is the only one who really fully understand enough to converse about it with me.
It goes something like this:
"Katie, when you grow up, make sure you look for someone just like Daddy to
marry."
"Hmmmm... Mom, how about if I marry Daddy?"
@.@ "No, you can't marry him because I already married him... and he's mine!"
"No, he's mine~ My Daddy!"
"That's right, he's your Daddy, but he's MY Husband. Get your own man!"
"Hmph! I don't care, I'm going to marry him."
"Well, he married me because he loves Mommy. And I love him."
"I love Daddy too!"
"Yeah, but I love him more!"
... squabble, squabble... Oh great. And I've got two more of them with whom I have to
compete for my husband's affections with.
As it turns out, that same daughter is the one who led me to become interested in
becoming a teacher when she entered grade school a few years ago. I saw how much
she looked up to her teachers and how impressionable she was and the flexibility of after-
class session hours of teachers attracted me. Yes, the starting pay for teachers with just
a credential was disheartening but I figure I can always pursue more and continue taking
courses to get myself to a higher pay scale.
My experiences in teaching includes about 7 years of being a Sunday School teacher to
6th graders, tutoring English to Korean immgrant children as well as 13+ years of being
a piano teacher which at one time I had over 30 students and held piano recitals for
them.
The piano teaching was actually very lucrative considering I was working only part time
and receiveing $40~$50 per hour but as I got married and had kids, I found that I did
not want to work after 5 pm and students usually get home no earlier than 3 pm for me
to go to them for their lessons.
I usually have good rapport with my students but due to the confines of the very
controlled and tame environment of which I was given to teach, I will have to find out
how it will be once I get a "real" experience out there, in a public school classroom
setting, especially of a middle or high school one.
Besides playing the keyboards and singing for my contemporary Christian praise band at
my church, my hobbies change for me quite often and that is mostly possible because of
the wonderful world of the internet and free information sites and blogs of some talented
people who freely post their hobbies that they're good at, such as baking, cooking,
balloon art, home decor and crafts.
My last bit of free time that I was able to enjoy before devoting virtually ALL my time to
this winter semester with my 8 classes that total 17 units, was making pretzels when I
found a site where I was able to get recipes for Aunt Annie's or Wetzel's Pretzels and
bake them at home. My husband was thrilled!!! He always would make it a point to stop
by at the Wetzel's Pretzels whenever we go to The Grove with our children and at $3~4 a
pop, I promised to myself 'I will find the recipe to those pretzels, damn it!'
And so for every day of the week just prior to the start of this semester, I invited
different groups of friends over to my place for a humble luncheon and then served them
hot, yummy pretzels for dessert, complete with 3 kinds of toppings. Yes, I called all of
my numerous mother-and-baby playgroups and fed them all. I think I gained 5 pounds
that week. My husband probably gained about that much in sympathy which was just like
him to do that 'cause he had "Sympathetic Pregnancy" with me when I was having mild
morning sickness symptoms during my first pregnancy.
"Pathetic", his friends would say; "OH... How sweet!", said mine.
Well, to each his/her own...
I was required to write a biog
I was required to write a biograpy and email all my classmates in my Secondary Education class, one of the courses that I need to take as a part of the credential program.
It's been a while since I've written a lengthy introduction of myself and wanted to keep a record of it and decided to paste it here.
Subject: Bio and Picture
Message no. 56 Author: Helen Date: Friday, February 9, 2007 3:19am Hi everyone, My name is Helen and I have come back after 12 years to finish my Bachelors degree in music performance with piano being my instrument. Once I decided to come back to finish, which turned out to be all but 8 units of music classes, I explored my options and decided to start on a credential to become a music teacher for K-12. During the 12 year Haitus, I have been married for 12 years come this summer and have 3 daughters ages 8, 4 and 1. My wonderful husband is a colleague of mine who attended CSUN with me back then and is in full support of me pursuing further education for my future. For that, I will forever be indebted to him especially when I leave my house everyday at 7:30am and come back more than 12 hours later at past 8pm. When I come home, I find all my beautiful 3 girls have been fed and all and any traces of having had a meal at the dining table is reduced to nothing but a neat pile of clean dishes on the dish rack and the floors and dust-free and spotless. I thank God every day and pray that my daughters will also be blessed to find a husband who will be just like their Daddy~ ^^* I constantly tell my daughters and ofcourse my 8 year old is the only one who really fully understand enough to converse about it with me. It goes something like this: "Katie, when you grow up, make sure you look for someone just like Daddy to marry." "Hmmmm... Mom, how about if I marry Daddy?" @.@ "No, you can't marry him because I already married him... and he's mine!" "No, he's mine~ My Daddy!" "That's right, he's your Daddy, but he's MY Husband. Get your own man!" "Hmph! I don't care, I'm going to marry him." "Well, he married me because he loves Mommy. And I love him." "I love Daddy too!" "Yeah, but I love him more!" ... squabble, squabble... Oh great. And I've got two more of them with whom I have to compete for my husband's affections with. As it turns out, that same daughter is the one who led me to become interested in becoming a teacher when she entered grade school a few years ago. I saw how much she looked up to her teachers and how impressionable she was and the flexibility of after- class session hours of teachers attracted me. Yes, the starting pay for teachers with just a credential was disheartening but I figure I can always pursue more and continue taking courses to get myself to a higher pay scale. My experiences in teaching includes about 7 years of being a Sunday School teacher to 6th graders, tutoring English to Korean immgrant children as well as 13+ years of being a piano teacher which at one time I had over 30 students and held piano recitals for them. The piano teaching was actually very lucrative considering I was working only part time and receiveing $40~$50 per hour but as I got married and had kids, I found that I did not want to work after 5 pm and students usually get home no earlier than 3 pm for me to go to them for their lessons. I usually have good rapport with my students but due to the confines of the very controlled and tame environment of which I was given to teach, I will have to find out how it will be once I get a "real" experience out there, in a public school classroom setting, especially of a middle or high school one. Besides playing the keyboards and singing for my contemporary Christian praise band at my church, my hobbies change for me quite often and that is mostly possible because of the wonderful world of the internet and free information sites and blogs of some talented people who freely post their hobbies that they're good at, such as baking, cooking, balloon art, home decor and crafts. My last bit of free time that I was able to enjoy before devoting virtually ALL my time to this winter semester with my 8 classes that total 17 units, was making pretzels when I found a site where I was able to get recipes for Aunt Annie's or Wetzel's Pretzels and bake them at home. My husband was thrilled!!! He always would make it a point to stop by at the Wetzel's Pretzels whenever we go to The Grove with our children and at $3~4 a pop, I promised to myself 'I will find the recipe to those pretzels, damn it!' And so for every day of the week just prior to the start of this semester, I invited different groups of friends over to my place for a humble luncheon and then served them hot, yummy pretzels for dessert, complete with 3 kinds of toppings. Yes, I called all of my numerous mother-and-baby playgroups and fed them all. I think I gained 5 pounds that week. My husband probably gained about that much in sympathy which was just like him to do that 'cause he had "Sympathetic Pregnancy" with me when I was having mild morning sickness symptoms during my first pregnancy. "Pathetic", his friends would say; "OH... How sweet!", said mine. Well, to each his/her own...