Dogs can have a positive effect on your life if you allow them. Before I met my husband, I warranted off dogs thinking they were too needy. Too hard to take care of daily. Too unpredictable. Well, I was absolutely wrong. I wasn't always a dog lover. Before my husband held up "Angel", a half Dachshund/half Labrador little round ball of fur, I was always in the mind to own a cat. Growing up with both cats and dogs, I'd made my mind up that dogs were needier. And they are! But that is the reason why I can no longer live without them. When my daughter started her final year of high school, she'd already spent a summer away at a college and big changes occurred after that for her and us, her parents. My husband took a job across the country which would have me 2,000 miles away from both my mother and daughter. The excitement of moving settled in, but the fear of distance did as well. During all the changes, Darcy, my new little angel, who is a half Yorkshire Terrier/ half Chihuahua, was there to greet me every single morning with needing hugs and sustenance and of course, bathroom time. When all the world around me was busy in motion with the changes in our family's life, Darcy was the ever-standing staple in my life. Her unconditional love was my saving grace to make it through all the constant changes. Through the years, we have had many fur babies since our beloved Angel. Proudly announced as a dog mom now, I will always cherish Angel, Ella, Bella, Sophie, Maggie, Shadow, and my sweet, devoted Darcy who makes my morning start off with a smile each and every day.

Getting a doctorate in education has been sudden, but the fervent dream I am determined to pursue. After so many years of mentoring young teachers to embrace the educational system and take its changes and challenges with a passion, I want to move into the role of teaching them before that first step in the classroom. One goal that formed in my early years of teaching was the curiosity about how to bridge gaps between early education and secondary education. Often hearing conversations from teachers in middle and high school expressing how much students are lacking in the rigorous needs that need to be met long before they arrive in the later grades, I made it a mission to find a way to help lessen the gaps. Teaching across the grade levels has taught me how to help other teachers close the gaps between what scaffolding skills through the grade levels can do for a child’s education. The importance of data scaffolded assistive documents, the standards and objectives for grade-level material, shared teacher collaboration, innovative ideas that work, and detailed intense interventions in the classroom have been a passion for my personal mission in the education of today’s classroom. I have a passion for wanting to help close gaps in teaching standards-based classrooms that are required to meet the demanding testing requirements of today’s classroom with the combined ideas of providing innovative, motivating, engaging classrooms that students thrive in along with the teacher. I am determined to make a difference in the lives of both teachers and students.

Life is all about the impact you make on others and how your legacy will be perceived. As a person moves through a profession, they start to doubt their abilities when younger candidates' newer ideas start to get hired. Mentoring others is a vocation all on its own. While working on your own career and furthering yourself in your profession, it is tasking to take on another's eager drive to step into the same profession. And yet, it is equally as rewarding. The first time I mentored a first-year teacher, as well as a student teacher in the same year, it was eye-opening how many new ideas can be shared between three different spectrums. Beforehand, I felt like I was stepping into a role where I would be sharing my expertise, but unbeknownst to me, I learned just as much from them. Mentoring someone in your own profession can be a make-or-break type of situation. It is vitally important that mentors are carefully chosen to be positive influences. I've seen some struck down by the idea of another teacher mentoring a student teacher who criticized every idea they had only to have the learned response to never say anything at all. It is disheartening. Mentoring is a skill. And with that, it is equally rewarding and just as instructive to a veteran in a profession. I am truly thankful for all the expertise received as was given through the years and look forward to many more. As a future professor of education, I want to be that mentor that helps future teachers embrace the passion of which they first set their goal of being a teacher.

Life is all about the impact you make on others and how your legacy will be perceived. Mentoring others is a vocation all on its own. While working on your own career and furthering yourself in your profession, it is tasking to take on another's eager drive to step into the same profession. And yet, it is equally as rewarding. The first time I mentored a first-year teacher, as well as a student teacher in the same year, it was eye-opening how many new ideas can be shared between three different spectrums. Beforehand, I felt like I was stepping into a role where I would be sharing my expertise, but unbeknownst to me, I learned just as much from them. The eagerness of the teachers who are just starting their careers combined with their most recent studies of researched strategies that work combined with a veteran teacher who has put many practices into action, the PLC experiences are very rewarding. Mentoring someone in your own profession can be a make-or-break type of situation. It is vitally important that mentors are carefully chosen to be positive influences. I've seen some struck down by the idea of another teacher mentoring a student teacher who criticized every idea they had only to have the learned response to never say anything at all. It is disheartening. Mentoring is a skill. And with that, it is equally rewarding and just as instructive to a veteran in a profession. I am truly thankful for all the expertise received as was given through the years and look forward to many more. As a future professor of education, I want to be that mentor that helps future teachers embrace the passion of which they first set their goal of being a teacher.

One of the biggest problems facing the world right now is the teacher shortage and the reasons behind why teachers do not choose the profession to stay in it. One key "ingredient" to keeping teachers is the mentoring system and who is chosen to mentor. Mentoring others is a vocation all on its own. While working on your own career and furthering yourself in your profession, it is tasking to take on another's eager drive to step into the same profession. And yet, it is equally as rewarding. The first time I mentored a first-year teacher, as well as a student teacher in the same year, it was eye-opening how many new ideas can be shared between three different spectrums. The eagerness of the teachers who are just starting their careers combined with their most recent studies of researched strategies that work combined with a veteran teacher who has put many practices into action, the PLC experiences are very rewarding. Mentoring someone in your own profession can be a make-or-break type of situation. It is vitally important that mentors are carefully chosen to be positive influences. I've seen some struck down by the idea of another teacher mentoring a student teacher who criticized every idea they had only to have the learned response to never say anything at all. It is disheartening. Mentoring is a skill. And with that, it is equally rewarding and just as instructive to a veteran in a profession. I am truly thankful for all the expertise received as was given through the years and look forward to many more. As a future professor of education, I want to be that mentor that helps future teachers embrace the passion of which they first set their goal of being a teacher or becoming one.

Mentoring others is a vocation all on its own. While working on your own career and furthering yourself in your profession, it is tasking to take on another's eager drive to step into the same profession. And yet, it is equally as rewarding. The first time I mentored a first-year teacher, as well as a student teacher in the same year, it was eye-opening how many new ideas can be shared between three different spectrums. Beforehand, I felt like I was stepping into a role where I would be sharing my expertise, but unbeknownst to me, I learned just as much from them. The eagerness of the teachers who are just starting their careers combined with their most recent studies of researched strategies that work combined with a veteran teacher who has put many practices into action, the PLC experiences are very rewarding. Mentoring someone in your own profession can be a make-or-break type of situation. It is vitally important that mentors are carefully chosen to be positive influences. I've seen some struck down by the idea of another teacher mentoring a student teacher who criticized every idea they had only to have the learned response to never say anything at all. It is disheartening. Mentoring is a skill. And with that, it is equally rewarding and just as instructive to a veteran in a profession. I am truly thankful for all the expertise received as was given through the years and look forward to many more. As a future professor of education, I want to be that mentor that helps future teachers embrace the passion of which they first set their goal of being a teacher.

As an educator with 23 years of experience teaching grades 2-12, my career has helped me close the gaps in what students need from start to finish in their education. After teaching 14 years of elementary school grades 2-6th grade, I moved on to teach middle school ELA and then high school ELA. One goal that formed in my early years of teaching was the curiosity about how to bridge gaps between early education and secondary education. Often hearing conversations from teachers in middle and high school expressing how much students are lacking in the rigorous needs that need to be met long before they arrive in the later grades, I made it a mission to find a way to help lessen the gaps. Teaching across the grade levels has taught me how to help other teachers close the gaps between what scaffolding skills through the grade levels can do for a child’s education. The importance of data scaffolded assistive documents, the standards and objectives for grade-level material, shared teacher collaboration, innovative ideas that work, and detailed intense interventions in the classroom have been a passion for my personal mission in the education of today’s classroom. I have a passion for wanting to help close gaps in teaching standards-based classrooms that are required to meet the demanding testing requirements of today’s classroom with the combined ideas of providing innovative, motivating, engaging classrooms that students thrive in along with the teacher. From paperless classrooms to teacher tools that aid test-taking practices, and educational materials that increase engagement and motivation in the classroom, I am determined to make a difference in the lives of both teachers and students.

Such an easy question--"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. This is an eye-roller answer, but it doesn't meet the usual reasons for liking such a book. Yes, it has all the elements of what a female reader might want in a romantic setting for the regency era of classic fiction, but for me, it was the strong-willed determination of Jane Austen's writing behind it that made me like the book. For those who investigated the life of Jane Austen and the time period of her writing, one learns that women were still struggling to get their voice heard, much less do away with the stereotypes of skills women were "allowed" to own or acquire. Austen's bold writing, dynamic characters that change over the course of the book for the better, and a unique, inquisitive, ahead-of-her-time main character who "speaks her mind" make women of this day and time appreciate the struggles the writer went through. Like many authors and artists, some of Austen's works were published after her death. But the struggles she went through were not all in vain. Even though her best-known novel, "Pride and Prejudice" was rejected many years before it was published, it wasn't because she was a women writer. There were some publishers at that time who published women's works. Still, her bold beginnings still included a female character that was in fact like herself in the BOLD, with outspoken opinions and beliefs for the era. For those reasons, the character, Lizzie Bennet, is a bit of a role model in my life for not backing down when someone needs to stand up for another or say the right thing in a moment. Even a fictional book character can be inspiring, and I thank Jane Austen for her brave pursuit to create such a character.

Getting a doctorate in education has been a sudden, but the fervent dream I am determined to pursue. After so many years of mentoring young teachers to embrace the educational system and take its changes and challenges with a passion, I want to move into the role of teaching them before that first step in the classroom. Mentoring others is a vocation all on its own. While working on your own career and furthering yourself in your profession, it is tasking to take on another's eager drive to step into the same profession. And yet, it is equally as rewarding. The first time I mentored a first-year teacher, as well as a student teacher in the same year, it was eye-opening how many new ideas can be shared between three different spectrums. The eagerness of the teachers who are just starting their careers combined with their most recent studies of researched strategies that work combined with a veteran teacher who has put many practices into action, the PLC experiences are very rewarding. Mentoring someone in your own profession can be a make-or-break type of situation. It is vitally important that mentors are carefully chosen to be positive influences. Mentoring is a skill. And with that, it is equally rewarding and just as instructive to a veteran in a profession. As a future professor of education, I want to be that mentor that helps future teachers embrace the passion of which they first set their goal of being a teacher.

Mentoring others is a vocation all on its own. While working on your own career and furthering yourself in your profession, it is tasking to take on another's eager drive to step into the same profession. And yet, it is equally as rewarding. The first time I mentored a first-year teacher, as well as a student teacher in the same year, it was eye-opening how many new ideas can be shared between three different spectrums. The eagerness of the teachers who are just starting their careers combined with their most recent studies of researched strategies that work combined with a veteran teacher who has put many practices into action, the PLC experiences are very rewarding. Mentoring someone in your own profession can be a make-or-break type of situation. It is vitally important that mentors are carefully chosen to be positive influences. I've seen some struck down by the idea of another teacher mentoring a student teacher who criticized every idea they had only to have the learned response to never say anything at all. It is disheartening. Mentoring is a skill. And with that, it is equally rewarding and just as instructive to a veteran in a profession. I am truly thankful for all the expertise received as was given through the years and look forward to many more. As a future professor of education, I want to be that mentor that helps future teachers embrace the passion of which they first set their goal upon being a teacher.

Mentoring others is a vocation all 0n its own. While working on your own career and furthering yourself in your profession, it is tasking to take on another's eager drive to step into the same profession. And yet, it is equally as rewarding. The first time I mentored a first-year teacher, as well as a student teacher in the same year, it was eye-opening how many new ideas can be shared between three different spectrums. The eagerness of the teachers who are just starting their careers combined with their most recent studies of researched strategies that work combined with a veteran teacher who has put many practices into action, the PLC experiences are very rewarding. Mentoring someone in your own profession can be a make-or-break type of situation. It is vitally important that mentors are carefully chosen to be positive influences. I've seen some struck down by the ideas of another teacher mentoring a student teacher who criticized every idea they had only to have the learned response to never say anything at all. It is disheartening. Mentoring is a skill. And with that, it is equally rewarding and just as instructive to a veteran in a profession. I am truly thankful for all the expertise received as was given through the years and look forward to many more.

As an adult, one does not anticipate the future of taking care of others outside of children and a spouse. With taking care of children, it is a given, yet still a challenge every single day. As the caregiver, it is a daily, and often minute-by-minute, journey to help a child stay positive with the struggles of living up to the high expectations and not indicate that you are necessarily let down each and every time they fail at something. Everyone fails at something. It is mistakes that make us human and learn from them. And even saying it makes a caregiver reminded to "say it" often. And then there is the whole other spectrum of taking care of your own elderly mother in the same household. As a daughter of one who was always this spry cheerful mom, it is difficult to watch her descend into an age where she needs help for everyday tasks. Mothers are nurturers. So, to watch your nurturing mother get angry at helping with the sometimes not-so-small things can be disheartening. And with that, add to the fact that a grandmother of 96 with Alzheimer's needs someone to constantly check on her. These ladies need a cheerleader, organizer, how-to reminder list, what-I-forgot list, spring-cleaning, summer-cleaning, fall-cleaning, winter-cleaning kind of daughter who does it with a smile. It isn't always easy, but knowing they are still available to pick up the phone or smile each day I walk in, makes it all worth it. Moms are the best.

I wasn't always a dog lover. Before my husband held up "Angel", a half Dachshund/half Labrador little round ball of fur, I was always in the mind to own a cat. Growing up with both cats and dogs, I'd made my mind up that dogs were needier. And they are! But that is the reason why I can no longer live without them. When my daughter started her final year of high school, she'd already spent a summer away at a college and big changes occurred after that for her and us, her parents. My husband took a job across the country which would have me 2000 miles away from both my mother and daughter. The excitement of moving settled in, but the fear of distance did as well. During all the changes, Darcy, my new little angel, who is a half Yorkshire Terrier/ half Chihuahua, was there to greet me every single morning with needing hugs and sustenance and of course, bathroom time. When all the world around me was busy in motion with the changes in our family's life, Darcy was the ever-standing staple in my life. Her unconditional love was my saving grace to make it through all the constant changes. Through the years, we have had many fur babies since our beloved Angel. Proudly announced as a dog mom now, I will always cherish Angel, Ella, Bella, Sophie, Maggie, Shadow, and my sweet, devoted Darcy who makes my morning start off with a smile each and every day.

Healthy living can lead to a longer life. Too many young people do not see the need to plan carefully for the future. As a health-conscious person, I have had my moments of a fall from grace. After the birth of my daughter, my husband and I bought bikes and walked 7-10 miles a day. It was truly the healthiest period of my life. But when the decision to move to Mississippi came into the view, we didn't foresee the amount of sweet tea and fried catfish that would be appealing after moving here. Moving to one of the most unhealthiest states in America, it was years before we realized that, if we didn't change our habits, we would have health problems in later years. All that changed with a healthy Keto diet, the return to bike riding, and walking the dog most every day we were able. After reading about a friend who had the same vision, and hearing their story, it became a drive for the both of us to take the same trek. Now we have inspired our daughter to join her friends on walking challenges, joined the cross-country team in school, and grab a few days a week on the treadmill. They may be different challenges than we chose, but the means to the end is still the same. I am glad that, as a young person, she already sees the need for daily vegetables and exercise for a better future. Kudos to those who put their stories out there to inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

I wasn't always a dog lover. Before my husband held up "Angel", a half Daschund/half Labrador little round ball of fur, I was always in the mind to own a cat. Growing up with both cats and dogs, I'd made my mind up that dogs were more needy. And they are! But that is the reason why I can no longer live without them. When my daughter started her final year of high school, she'd already spent a summer away at a college and big changes occurred after that for her and us, her parents, both. My husband took a job across the country which would have me 2000 miles away from both my mother and daughter. The excitement of moving settled in, but the fear of distance did as well. During all the changes, Darcy, my new little angel, who is a half Yorkshire Terrier/ half Chihuahua, was there to greet me every single morning with needing hugs and sustenance and of course, bathroom time. When all the world around me was busy in motion with the changes in our family's life, Darcy was the ever standing staple in my life. Her unconditional love was my saving grace to make it through all the constant changes. Through the years, we have many fur babies since our beloved Angel. Proudly announced as a dog mom now, I will always cherish Angel, Ella, Bella, Sophie, Maggie, Shadow, and my sweet, devoted Darcy who makes my morning start off with a smile each and every day.

As an adult, one does not anticipate the future of taking care of others outside of children and a spouse. With taking care of children, it is a given, yet still a challenge every single day. People assume because your child is healthy and doing well in classes that it is an "easy" day-to-day caregiving experience. Advanced children can be just as difficult, and in some ways wittily more so, as other children. They still deal with difficulties that can lower their self-esteem, affect their moods, and wear on their peer-pressured expectations of living up to the level they have made it too. As the caregiver, it is a daily, and often minute-by-minute, journey to help a child stay positive with the struggles of living up to the high expectations and not indicate that you are necessarily let down each and every time they fail at something. Everyone fails at something. It is mistakes that make us human and learn from them. And even saying it makes a caregiver reminded to "say it" often. And then there is the whole other spectrum of taking care of your own elderly mother in the same household. As a daughter of one who was always this spry cheerful mom, it is difficult to watch her descend into an age where she needs help for everyday tasks. Mothers are nurturers. So to watch your nurturing mother get angry at helping with the sometimes not-so-small things can be disheartening. And with that, add to the fact that a grandmother of 96 with Alzheimer's is in need of someone to constantly check on her. These ladies need a cheerleader, organizer, how-to reminder list, what-I-forgot list, spring-cleaning, summer-cleaning, fall-cleaning, winter-cleaning kind of daughter who does it with a smile. It isn't always easy, but knowing they are still available to pick up the phone or smile each day I walk in, makes it all worth it. Moms are the best.

Educational Utopian Dream in Higher Education As a twenty-three-year veteran teacher who recently completed a master's degree in Elementary Education, I hope to continue to my next step of pursuing my doctorate in Educational Philosophies and Practices. With all the demands and rigor of today’s educational needs for both the classroom teacher and students, it is important that thoughtful, careful consideration takes place in preparing future teachers for those needs. Every teacher walks in with a utopian dream of making a difference in the educational field. It can be overwhelming and stifling for some when the demands make them lost in the futuristic idea of what they set out to do. Just like a mentor teacher wants to be to a student, a teacher needs a mentor to motivate and be reassuring continuously throughout their career. They need someone they can go to when challenges occur. They need that one person whom they can go to for possible answers. The current trend of PLCs, or professional learning communities, lends to the idea that sharing each other’s expertise is to create a positive, welcoming environment where teachers can come for answers. Working to increase mastery of objectives with best practices should be a celebratory victory session. The delivery of such a session should be a high-end goal for administration and teachers, alike. As well, those teachers need to have mentors who can share insight for working together as a whole, as well as provide ideas that are often outside the school community. While teachers are always open to continuing education through professional development, there is always a need for someone to be on-call for ideas they need right then. I want to be that “right then on-call” type of professional aid that they can call on the phone and get ideas at the time they are teaching a particular standard so they can work on making better successes “right then”. The routes taken over the decades of progress through the educational system in America have made many teachers feel pressure to excel in their practical understandings of standards-based curriculum and stay informed with continually updated practices and pedagogy for the classroom. Being a continuing mentor to future and current teachers has fast become a passion of mine and burns with the hope to help deliver promising, innovative ideas to those teachers. Teachers need reassuring, understanding, like-minded influence from a person who knows what they are going through but also might have some of the answers they are looking for or knows where go looking for those answers. Students need motivating, innovative hands-on ideas for the careers and jobs of tomorrow to be college and career ready for the stringent technology-driven society around us. Without that passion, teachers often feel lost in a sea of educational policies and requirements and tend to feel stifled by them. It often only takes a “world of ideas” approach to see the integration of both a rigorous curriculum and motivating inviting activities and ideas aimed at being achieved for female students. I want to be that person. I want to be the mentoring, dedicated, veteran teacher who empathizes with the needs of current and future teachers and stays dedicated to aiding them in finding the best practices for rigorous, standards-based, motivating ideas that work in a classroom that led to more women in high-end related fields.