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Hello. My name is Cecilia Holt. I live in Argyle, Texas. I have been in education for 33 years and love working with students and adult learners.

This is a picture of my beautiful family. Both of my children are grown, and we are empty nesters!

One thing that I have done that no one else has done is run a full marathon.

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Hey Y'all! My name is Erica Freelove. I live in Adkins TX. I have been teaching children for as long as I can remember. However I did not start working Formally until last semester when I applied to be a paraprofessional for Floresville ISD. Now I teach my own class called "caring lab".

This is just a picture of me taken on the day I though I was getting my employee photo done.

Something that I'm convinced only I've done is run into a screen door that was still closed. In my defense it was a really clean screen.

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Hello everyone! My name is Mara A Zepeda, I am 24 years old and I live in Denton, Tx. I am a mother of two wonderful babies and I am currently pursuing my career in education (early education to be exact). I work for Krum ISD as an Inclusion para and I must say I love every single minute of it. I am so blessed to be here and I am so excited to get to know you all.

Something I think no one else may have done that I have is maybe go snorkeling with sharks? This was a while ago, back when I was 16. We got to go to Cancun and we were gifted a free snorkeling activity but when I looked down the area was filled with nurse sharks! Which essentially isn’t all that terrible but it was pretty scary to me.

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Hi there - my name is Chris Rangel. I live in Denton and have resided here since 1995. I moved here to attend TWU. Although I am a Native Texan, I grew up on the East Coast. I have been in education over 25 years and love helping young learners, as well as educators, grow and develop.

This picture is of me and my family taken earlier this year. My husband and I have two daughters. One has entered high school this year, and one just recently got engaged.

One thing I bet no one in this class has experienced is that while I was in college, I attended a Presidential visit to Sundance Square. A piece of my clothing set-off the metal detector, and I will quickly moved to the side and had to meet with Secret Service to ensure everyone's safety.

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Hello Everyone! My name is Samantha Owens, I am 32 and live in Justin. I am happily married and have 3 beautiful children, 2 boys and 1 girl. I have always loved working with children and helping others. Prior to having my kids, I was licensed as a Chemical Dependency Counselor and work at an inpatient Rehab facility. Once having our oldest son who is now almost 7 I decided to put my career on hold and become a fulltime stay-at-home-mom. Both of my sons were diagnosed at the age of 3 with autism and after going through what seemed like a long exhausting road and moving out of our recent district my boys are getting the education and support they need. I am going to get my degree in Special Education so I can be the teacher to those young growing minds.

This is a picture of my husband and I; I really need to get updated family pictures because the last ones I have my daughter was 1 and she just turned 3.. haha.

Something I think no one else may have done that I have done is, that I actually enjoy cleaning and organizing. It is an escape for me and it allows me to fix things. My sister tells me all the time, it doesn't look like my house is lived in because its always so clean. Especially with toddler. haha

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Hello everyone!! My name is Imelda Martinez and I live in Houston Tx. I have a wonderful family. I have a amazing husband and two boys, 22 and 8 years old. They are my life!! After almost 20 years I decided to come back to school and persuade my career. I have been working in HISD for 20 years as a paraprofessional. One thing I can say is that I love my job!! It's super exciting working with kids.

Now something that only me Imelda have done in my past is ate a roach. It was nasty, but I had to try it. I also ate some grasshoppers with lemon. It was when I was living in Mexico years ago. Do I regret it? Nope!

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Hi everyone! My name is Jessica Gonzalez. I'm married and a mother of 2 boys, ages 7 and 3 years old. I currently live in Irving, TX. I'm originally from Virginia, but moved to Texas as a child and have been here ever since. My kids are a big reason why I want to teach and I had such positive classroom experiences when I was growing up. One thing I think no one else has done is when I was kindergarten, my class took a field trip to the White House and they had Santa Clause read to us during our visit. This was during the Bush presidency, but we did not get see him.

This is a picture of my oldest son and I after my college graduation this past May.

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Hi Classmates!

My name is Keila Vasquez. I am from Washington DC but have been living in Houston, Texas for the last 12 years. I was a stay home mother for about 6 years. Last year my youngest daughter started Pre-k. I felt so LONELY. As a result I started volunteering in her classroom and I fell in love with it. I also felt that I could offer more this is why I decided to go back to school.

This is a picture of my two children Jezreel (pronounced Jazz-Real) who is 7, Aisha (I-E-Sha) is 5 and myself.

One thing that I have done that no one else has done is drive 24 hours straight!

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Hey everyone! My name is Taylor Adam’s and I am 22 and have been working at a preschool. I love working with kids and seeing the look on there face when they finally grasp a concept, it is just the best. I am currently living in Allen starting Sunday I will be moving to denton. I have two dogs and a bunny rabbit. Something that I think no one else has done is go to Greece. I really enjoy traveling and I have been to 34 states and 4 countries! This picture is at in Athens Greece.

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Hi everyone! My name is Alexya, I am 21 years old and I live in Amarillo Tx. I currently live with my mom dad and little sister. I have a little dog named ChaCha she’s half poodle and chihuahua mixed together. I’m currently studying to be a kindergarten teacher. I love traveling the world a really cool place that I have been would probably be the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.Another thing that I really enjoy is going to concerts  I’ve been to soo many concerts like Bad bunny, Drake, Peso pluma, and many more.
Something that I have done before that I’m convinced no one else has done before is that in the Dominican Republic I got to ride a camel.
This picture is when I graduated college in May with my Associates degree! My beautiful family supporting me.

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Hello Everyone! My name is Lesly Cantu,I am 24 years old . I live in Katy,Tx . I am married and a mommy of two Boys.The oldest is 3 and the youngest is 1.I put my education on pause after having my First but i am back and ready to pursue my career in Early Childhood Education.I have always dreamt of becoming a teacher.I loved working for the Children's prime ministry at my church for 5 years .Children are full of surprises and it's amazing to watch them grow and learn in a classroom setting.

One thing that i have done that one else has done is continue my education with two small children . It's crazy of me to do this when my babies are still so young and need my full time attention!

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Hi everyone!

My name is Viviana Mora, I am a McKinney born and raised Texan. As much as I love Texas, I hope one day to end up in Colorado. I've visited a few times and I never want to leave, it is absolutely beautiful. I have no children, but I think of my nephews as my own. The photo above is actually my two youngest nephews at the movies. I also have one german shepherd named Simba, and I recently lost my childhood dog of 12 years, Indio, who was a Siberian Husky. I miss him dearly.

I have been in the early childhood education field for as long as I can remember but have been growing and learning within the same school district that I attended for four years now. I currently work with bilingual tiny humans and my heart couldn't be more content. I know it has been a long time coming now, but I hope soon to become a certified bilingual teacher myself.

One thing that I think no one else may have done is climb the manitou incline in Colorado, which is harder than most people think. Even I thought walking up to it that it would be easy! But I was wrong! It took about two and a half hours long, and I am very proud of myself for it. I hope to climb many more mountains in the future. I highly recommend it to anyone who has not gone!

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Hello everyone, my name is Guadalupe Ortiz, I am 33 years old. I am the mother of two beautiful girls, 12 and 4 years old. I am happily married. I was born in Mexico and move to the US when I was 8-year-old. I used to be a stay home mom but when my mom passed away and I stayed home, it was very hard for me and that's when I decided to look for a job that would keep my mind busy. In that year my daughter started Pre-K and I was able to work as a teacher's assistant at her school. I love working with children and seeing how they are learning. I really love what I do, and I would really love to be able to help them more with their education.

Something that I think no one has done is visit a cemetery at midnight, I did this in Mexico on some tours that they offer to tell legends at midnight.

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Hi everyone! My name is Kelly Carmichael. I live in Ft. Worth, TX with my husband and two kids. I currently work in Northwest ISD as a Pre K paraprofessional. This is my second year in the district but I also taught in a private preschool for 6 years prior to that. I'm excited to begin my journey to teacher certification!

This picture was taken on my family's Disneyland vacation in June 2024.

The one thing that I've done that no one else has done is visited an underground waterfall. Where I'm originally from, Chattanooga, TN, has a landmark named Ruby Falls. It is a 100 foot waterall inside a mountain. You ride an elevator down and hike very narrow trails to get to it. It's amazing and such a sight!

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Hi all! My name is Ednalleli but Edna

works fine. I am currently living in Houston. I have two wonderful children that I proudly call my own. My oldest and only daughter April 20 and my youngest and only boy Xavier 10. I have worked in the SPED department as a para for 11 years now. They are some amazing little people and don't let the fool you into thinking they can't do something!! I was on the fence on whether or not to stick to SPED for my major but that paperwork that comes with it is no joke. Who knows I may change my mind in the end. I also enjoy working with pre-k through 2 grades and honestly 3rd is pushing it.

One thing I have done that no else may have, is grow up in a dairy farm. I remember spending my summer days out with the cows or just exploring the outdoors. I had several baby cows through out the years that I would care for. My love for animals grew there. I have my dachshund of 11 years but at one point I had 2 dogs, 3 guinea pigs and one snake.

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Hi everyone! My name is Philysia but I go by Philly. I am 21 years old and I was born in Louisiana. I lived in Wylie,Tx majority of my life but recently moved to Denton. I was actually a pre nursing major and wanted to do NICU, but had a change of heart. I have always worked with kids so this was nothing new, and I am an older sister so I have a motherly instinct.

One thing I dont think anyone has done is zip line across a whole island.

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Hello, My name is Keandra, but I like to be called Key. I currently live in Houston. I have two amazing boys Kason 9 years old and Konnor 5 years old. I call them Boss and Bam! LOL!! I quit my job of about 10 years to teach, so this is my second year at my school where I am a Learning Coach for 4th grade. Last year I worked with 3rd grade. I love working with kids and most of jobs have been with kids ranging from daycares to working with youth in care of DFPS. I am excited to learn more and apply it at work.

One thing that I have done that I think no one has done was to ride the Sling Shot 5 times back to back without passing out like everyone else. Also rode once with my son Kason who was 7 yrs old at the time. I was so proud of him because he was the only kid that did not pass out. He was really brave.

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Hello! My name is Asalia Torres, and I am from Irving, TX. I am 18 years old and currently studying to become a first grade teacher.

Something that I don't think anyone else has done is gotten lost for a long time on a hiking trail. My family and I recently visited Latourell Falls in Oregon. Despite being led by relatives, My sister and I separated and took a risky path to see other parts of the area. It took us about an hour to reunite with the rest of our family, but we did get to see pretty views.

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Hola! Mi nombre es Lupita. I was born and raised in Mexico, completed my higher education there, and then moved to the USA after getting married. I put my career on hold for five years to adapt to a new country, and language, and start a family. I have three wonderful sons who now have families of their own. During college, I worked as a Math/Science teacher and found my passion for teaching. After working as a chemist for 15 years, I followed my instinct and switched to teaching.

I have worked, as a bilingual paraprofessional at Hodge Elementary for the past 16 years.

"I don't think anyone else in this class has gone, back to school after 42 years, at the edge of 64. It will be hard, but not impossible, to complete my teacher's certification with the help of my wonderful teacher and peers."

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Hi everyone,

I'm Diana, a first-year college student pursuing a B.S. in Early Childhood Education with a focus on PreK-3 and Bilingual Education.

Im originally from Mexico, I came to Texas when I was 11 years old. A little something about me is that I love watching scary movies on rainy days. I'm married and have 5 kids my oldest kid is 23 and my youngest is 15 years old. I’m passionate about working with young children and helping them learn abd achieve their goals.

My love for teaching grew from my experience working as a Paraprofessional at Denton ISD. I fell in love working there my first year that to me is not a job, I actually enjoy it so much. I’m now aiming to become a bilingual teacher. I’m so excited to dive into this class and enhance my skills to better support and inspire students. Looking forward to learning with you all!

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Hello everyone!

My name is Rabia Ghezal. I have been living in Houston, Texas for about 17 years now. I have four wonderful children: a girl and three boys. I am currently teaching as a bilingual first grade teacher.  My favorite grades to teach are first and second graders as I prefer teaching younger students to older students

A thing I have done that I believe no one else, at least in this class, has done is learn these three languages: Arabic, French, and English. I love these three languages and spent lots of time perfecting them!

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Hello Everyone!! My name is Lylicia Clay I live in Grand Prarie Tx but currently in Denton

One thing that i’ve done would be when I was on a cruise about a year ago on one of the islands (honduras) I was able to hold a few monkeys and a sloth very exciting

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Hello everyone! My name is Rachael Ross. I live in Frisco, TX, but grew up in Denton. I have been working with kids for about 5 years now and have loved it, so I decided to further my career.

Something I have done that I think no one else has is I went on a mission trip to Costa Rica in high school and I got to help rebuild a tin roof.

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Hello Everyone! My name is Jennifer and I have taught for 15 years and I love working in education. I live in Lewisville, Texas and I've been taking classes off and on for years while putting motherhood first. I am now working hard towards finishing my degree and moving forward with a top notch education here at TWU! I'm excited to be a part of the class and wish everyone a great semester!

Something that other may not have done...spent hours waiting and watching your daughter dance at Irish festivals and competitions all over the southern states and for some reason Maryland! . Sometimes...I still here the music in my mind :)