Introduce Yourself

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

I suspect the first thing we need to do is to Introduce ourselves. If you are a student in my TECS 290 class, tell us where you grew up (town, state), what is you major (i.e. elementary, math, science, etc) and what inspired you to decide you to become a teacher.

If you are a teacher out there in the trenches, tell us where you are in the world, what you teach and of course how long have you taught and what is your favorite thing about using technology in the classroom.

[Eryn Norton]

Hi Barbie! Of course I don't mind! You have a lot of great ideas that we will all benefit from!

Love,
Eryn

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

Hey, and who would that inspirational science teacher be?

[Eryn Norton]

My inspirational science teacher is Mrs. Cheryl Shepherd-Adams at HHS.

[Barbie]

My name is Barbie Norton and I am currently in my 17th year of teaching (my where DOES the time go..), during which I student taught in kindergarten here in Hays at Washington Elementary, taught one year of first grade at Riley, KS, and spent 16 years teaching in Ellis (grades 1-6). The last ten years I have taught social studies for grades 4-6 in a departmentalized situation with 5th grade as my homeroom class. Four years ago, I participated in a EETT grant written by Cyndi and my classroom along with the 4th grade classroom received 2-1 laptops along with a bunch of other neat tech stuff. As a result of our grant efforts, Ellis purchased enough laptops after the first year for our kids to have 1-1 laptops. Next year Ellis will be 1-1 in grades 4-12. This next year I will be teaching in Hays at Felten Middle School with multi-media classes and web page development. I am VERY EXCITED about this new chapter in my educational career! By the way, I am also Eryn Norton's (who is taking the class..) stepmom and I am married to Ken. Yes, I know Barbie and Ken; believe me, the older we get the less funny it is! LOL We love traveling and teaching is my passion!

[Mike Diggs]

Hello,
My name is Mike Diggs. I'm 30 years old. I'm majoring in Information Networking and Telecommunications. I will graduate in December. I'm happily married with 2 little girls to keep me on my toes. I enjoy computers and learning new ways to stay on top of new and changing technology. My dream job would be to coach the University of Kansas basketball team. I'm a huge KU and KC Chiefs fan. I live and die a little bit with each passing season. I love to be in the outdoors. I have two dogs as well. One is a Golden Retriever and the other is a Yellow Lab. I just rescued two cats as well from the pound their names are "Lucky" and “Snoball”. I'm thinking about stepping into the education arena. I've been in IT for 9 years now. I'm currently a Network Engineer for a large K-12 public school district in the suburbs of Kansas City. I'm excited to see more of the instructional side of technology in relation to education. I've supported Blackboard in the past in the local school district. We decided after cost and some support issues that Moodle was a much better option. Moodle has caught on like wildfire in our district. It's nice to be on the other end of the spectrum. By getting to use Moodle instead of just supporting it. I look to gain a new perspective.

[Vicki Schmidt]

I am a 39 year old mother of four daughters...Whew! I grew up in Hays, Kansas where my mother taught businesses courses at the local public high school for 25 years. I currently live north of Salina, Kansas and work at Bennington High School. We are a small school with a high school enrollment of about 120 and a grade school enrollment of about 200. I work as a library aide and also facilitate our high school ITV classes. Next year I will also be working as the YouthFriends coordinator for our school. Working in a school has really inspired me to become a teacher although people have been telling me I should be a teacher for as long as I can remember. Truthfully, if FHSU offered a virtual program in secondary education, that is probably the direction I would have gone. But I have decided to pursue an elementary education degree and add a Library media Specialist certification in hopes of landing a job as a librarian in a K-12 school library when I am finished.

[Deidra Chestnut]

I was born & raised in a town with a population of about 500 people (Kensington.) I graduated from high school in 2000 & graduated from Bethany College with a degree in Psychology in 2004. After attending Emporia State University for one semester, working towards my master's in Counseling, I decided it was time to move back home. I married my husband this past September & we are expecting our first baby in August. Currently, I am a resource worker for foster children and their families for St. Francis Academy, located in Kensington. I enjoy my job, but at times dislike the politics (although I am sure there are politics in every field.) Growing up, I was exposed to the education profession and looking back, should have declared elementary education as my major upon graduation from high school. I am excited about starting school again to obtain my degree in elementary education and plan on teaching in the lower grades. Technology is new to me and I can honestly admit that I am not very good with computers; so this class could be somewhat of a challenge! Aside from working for St. Francis Academy, I also coach high school volleyball here in Kensington. I love the girls and enjoy being part of the school setting.

[Kayla Krinhop]

Hi! I am Kayla Krinhop and I am from Chapman, Kansas. I am majoring in Elementary Education! I would really love to teach kindergarten or first grade! I have wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a young child. When I was about eight years old I used to pretend I was a teacher, and my younger brother who would have been four, was my student! I had him work on my old work book assignments and play learning games on the computer!

[Laura Anania]

Hello to all. My name is Laura Anania and I live on a little five acre patch of desert like land west of Salina, Kansas. I was born and raised in Central Wisconsin to I get made fun of down here because of my northern accent. I want to teach because I love children and love to help people succeed. What inspired me mostly would be my daughter Star (who is pictured with me in my profile) I started working with her at age three with reading, shapes, math and everything else I thought would assist her in staying ahead in school. My efforts paid off and she could read by four years old and tell time. She also was able to skip the 1st grade due to her testing at a 2.5-3rd grade level. Since I am in school to be a teacher; she wants to be a teacher and help with my schoolwork. Another plus to being a teacher: you get the summers off.

[Cory Triplett]

My name is Cory Triplett. I am a 22 year old student at Fort Hays State University. I grew up in Dighton Kansas, a small southwestern farming town. I am currently working on a secondary art education degree here at FHSU. My inspiration for teaching came from my love for the sunject of art and also my high school art teacher. Throughout my high school career I took art classes from the school and then I took art classes after school from a professional artist. By the time I was a senior I was taking 2 art classes at Dighton High and then my extra class after school. I was bombarded with new material every day. It was great! My two art teachers were of great inspiration to me. They taught me many great lessons such as an "I Can't" can. This is a can that you put 25 cents in everytime you said I can't. It helped me change from saying I can't to I don't know if I can do it, but I'll try. They also taught me many great sayings, such as, "The thing that separates artists from other professions is that they can usually fix their mistakes. I will forever remember these life lessons.

[Melissa Beyer]

HI my name is Melissa Beyer (soon to be Melissa Schoepf). I am originally from Hays, KS but now live in Overland Park. I currently work VSR Financial Serives which is a broker/dealer. Before that I lived in Herndon, VA and worked for a defense contractor. My Kansas roots pulled me back though :)

I graduated from Fort Hays State University with a degree in Mathematics. I have decided that I want to teach and am now taking the few classes I have to left to complete my teaching certificate. I have always known that I wanted to be a teacher. I regret not finishing the education requirements while I was at FHSU, because it is much harder to finish and work full time. One reason why I decided to go work in a couple different areas, is I wanted to be a teacher with other experience. I want to be able to have an answer and back it up with experience when I get that famous question "When am I going to use this?" Teaching has always been important to me. So many teachers have impacted my life and I want to give back to future students. I can't think of anything more rewarding that seeing a student succeed.

[Ryan Meng]

My name is Ryan and I am probably somewhere between a junior and senior in classification. I am working towards my second bachelor degree. I currently work in the counseling office at Garden City High School as a social worker. I love my job but I began to get interested in Physical Education five years ago when I began coaching 9th grade football at GCHS. If I would have started back then, I'd be finished by now! Oh well. I love working with kids and I love physical activity so I cannot wait to finish and hopefully become employed as a Physical Education teacher.

My wife and I have been married for six years. We are both from Garden City originally. We actually grew up about a block from each other. We both went to Kansas State University after high school, then moved back. She works as a social worker in the counselor position at the Holcomb elementary schools in Holcomb, KS. On May 4, 2005, we welcomed our first and only child (so far) into the world. Avery Ann is a little fireball and she makes our lives such a joy. She was scheduled to be delivered on 05-05-05 but decided to come a day early. She definitely has a mind of her own. We have a 5 year old golden retriever named Lucy as well.
Computer Info
PC desktop
How old is your computer
~2 years