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Hi everyone—welcome to class! I’m Dr. Cat Matthesen, and I’m excited to be your instructor this semester.

This is my 7th year teaching at Cochise College, and I usually teach education and reading classes. A little about me: I have two sons, Michael and Jacob, who both work at a coin shop in South Dakota. Jacob is married to Kylie, and they have two kids, which makes me a proud grandma!

When I’m not teaching, I love staying active—going to the gym, hiking, biking, and camping are some of my favorite things to do. At home, I have a sweet little dog named Ginger (she’s a Chihuahua/Terrier mix).

If you ever have questions or need help during the semester, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We can always set up a time to meet in person or on Teams. I’m looking forward to working with you all this semester!

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Hello everyone, I'm Zion. My goals for this class are to understand strategies to help teach kids. I plan to go through the Early Childhood Care & Education (AAS) program. I currently work at an elementary School as a paraprofessional teacher, always assisting the teacher. I am in the TLC room with special needs students to help correct bad behavior to good behavior. Been working with them for about two years, but resigning to another job, still with kids at CYS (Child Youth Services). I start that new job this Thursday. When I am not doing work, during my free time, I am either cooking, drawing, or going on outside adventures with my husband. I have a cat name Luna, she is so cute will always greet my husband or I when we come home. I have a sister and two brothers, my sister is married and has Two kids, which makes me an aunt. I am so glad to join this class with everyone, I am happy to get to know everyone else!

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I love dressing up! It's really fun thrift shopping to find hidden jems like this. 

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Hello there! My name is Lillian Neff & I am excited to be here in this class. I recently switched my major to Elementary Education after debating if it would be the right fit for me. So I am happy to be here now, especially in something I feel so passionate about. With this degree, I hope to learn how to support students, understand what goes into teaching in a classroom setting, & how to engage students while still ensuring a good learning environment. Additionally, I hope to establish a support system for children who have recently moved to the school system or area, so they can better acclimate to the curriculum, catch up, & feel more adjusted. This is important to me since I moved a lot as a kid, causing many gaps in my education that I had to later "re-learn". Every child deserves a good education, no matter what they have gone through. Some of my favorite things to do in my free time are to be active, whether that be hiking or taking a walk outside. I love being in nature. You'll often find me curled up outside on the rocking chair with a good book. I also love drawing, watercolor painting & I am currently in the process of writing a story. I am excited to learn more about all of you and to support each other while we're in this course!

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Hello everyone, my name is Danniela and I go by Danny. I am a DMA major and I took this class as an elective. Recently the college opened a program for paraeducator and I have been thinking about doing. In high school, I took early childhood, and really enjoyed it, so this class is something that piqued my interest. I love drawing, film, and music. My hobbies are playing video games, crafting, makeup, and cooking. I have 3 dogs, Minnie, Chiquitin, and Layla. They are a mix of chihuahua and something else haha. In this class I hope to learn more about children's education, education fundamentals, and the philosophies. I am very excited to be in this class and get to know you all!

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Hello, my name is Ashlynn Lewis. I am excited to be in this class this semester. This is my second year at Cochise College, and my major is in General Studies, but I plan on going into Elementary Education. I currently work at a school as a paraprofessional, working with mostly Kindergartener's, but sometimes Preschooler's. In my free time when I am not working I enjoy cooking, traveling, and working out. I am very excited to be in this class with everyone!

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Hello! My name is Madisyn Pascual and I am excited to get to know you all! I am 20 years old and I am from Sierra Vista, AZ. This is my second year here at Cochise, but I took a gap year after high school because I was unsure of what I wanted to go to school for. I currently major in Early Childhood Care and Education. In my free time I enjoy going for runs, going to the gym, being outside and being with my family. I have always loved helping people, especially children and have always felt like I was meant to be there for people in any way possible! I am excited to get to know you all and cannot wait to learn more about education!

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Hello! My name is Presly! I am 28 years old and a mom of two beautiful daughters! I am a principal's assistant at a school for kids with disabilities and I absolutely love my job. My family is the most important thing in the world to me, so my free time revolves around them. My husband is my best friend, and he is the reason I am able to work full time, be a mom, and go to school. I love doing crafts and baking. I use my stand mixer pretty much every weekend. I hate to toot my own horn, but I believe I make the world's best pumpkin cookies! Lastly, I am getting my degree in elementary education!

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Hello! My name is Sophia and I'm super excited to start college and this class! I plan on becoming a teacher after college, so I hope to learn as much about education and teaching as possible. It is important to me to learn to be a teacher who can help kids and make a classroom where kids can learn and feel safe in!

In my free time I love making art and being social with friends and family. I love fashion and having fun hair is a big part of my identity, my favorite color to have is pink! I dress up for every occasion and always go all out, I love thrifting and finding new pieces to try to style. Everything I do is super crafty, I'm always painting, or sculpting, or making something, I do a lot of DIY and I always try to be hands on and learn from my projects.

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Hi! My name is Sammantha Dickey, or Sammy for short, and I'm excited to take this class. I wanted to take this class because I'm interested in doing something in education to help students with special needs. In my free time, I enjoy playing video games and reading. When I'm not busy reading or playing games, I like to spend time with my animals. I have five dogs and six sphynx (hairless cats).

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Hello everyone, my name is Nicole but I also go by Nic. I was a Chemistry major but switched majors this year to Education. My goal is to be a high school science teacher, mainly focusing on chemistry and earth sciences. I love many crafting hobbies, which intersect to my main hobby of cosplaying. But right now all my crafting abilities are being funneled into wedding plans and decor as I will be getting married in June.

I look forward to this class and I know Dr. Cat is a fantastic teacher!

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Woman in a long purple dress sitting on a stone bench in front of greenery

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Hello! My name is Lally. It feels great to finally start this class. This will be my second year with Cochise. I want to be an elementary teacher. I am grateful to be able to work with second graders and have two lovely teachers that I can learn from. I love my job! It is so fun for me. Also, I love to play video games and eat yummy food. Anyway, I look forward to having a good semester with you all. Good luck!

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Hi everyone, I am Annabel, friends call me Annie or Anna. I have 3 younger siblings and 1 older sibling. I am currently in college for early childhood education and am about to start my very first daycare job. I enjoy doing karaoke and sewing in my free time. I also like to just go hang out with my friends.

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Hello! My name is Anastasia Lucchesi. I am 17 years old and new to college. I plan on getting a teaching degree in early childhood education. I love reading and writing, and I'm also really into art. I'm more of a jack of all trades but a master at none kind of person, so although I do a lot of hobbies, I'm not good at any of them.

I want to learn good ways to encourage students and different learning patterns. I want to become a teacher who is kind to all my students and can teach them in straightforward and fun ways.

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Hi hi hiiiii!

My name is Julia Schilling, I am beyond excited to start this class as I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. I am 18, I just graduated from Tombstone High School, and the most college experience I have was a few dual enrollment classes here and there the past two years. I have 6 siblings and grew up in a really big family in the Midwest, family dynamics are super important to me. I love reading, cooking/baking music, and playing volleyball/frisbee! But mainly I spend time with my son, his name is Jalen and he’s just over one and a half! My family has three dogs and a tortoise, so lots of time is spent outside with them! I love math and numbers have always made sense to me and explaining how they work to others brings me so much joy. So want to go into high school education, my goal is to be an Algebra teacher! I am looking forward to learning with all of you this semester!

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Hello everyone! My name is Isabelle Pereda, I am 19 years old, and I am an Early Childhood Education majour. I have been working with children since I was 15, I worked as an aftercare and summer school teacher at a school as well as a daycare worker with preschoolers until I was 19. Once I turned 19, I no longer felt like I was growing and my job slowly grew stagnant so I decided it was time for a change which led me to the job I currently have. I have been working at a Child Development Center for a couple of months now and it is honestly just the change I needed to continue growing professionally and personally. I now work with kids 8 weeks-5 years and it is so amazing. The growth I see in these kids, I feel, is a lot more drastic than what I was able to observe working with 4th and 5th graders. But other than my education and work experience, some things about me are I am the youngest of 4 girls, we are each about a year apart which was difficult when we were young but now we are all so close and I am so grateful we got to grow up together. I have both of my parents and they are so supportive and encouraging of everything I do. I honestly would not be where I am today without my dad, he truly knows me better than I know myself. I absolutely adore dancing, I am a member of a kpop cover group in Tucson so that is where I spend most of my weekends. I love going to concerts (the photo is me at one of my favourite concerts, Lyn Lapid) and building legos. I am also a very family oriented person so I love to be with my family and friends whenever possible. Besides all of that, I am so excited to continue my education and get to know everyone! Working with children is such a blessing and I am so grateful to be here.

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Hello classmates! My name is Alexa Zamarripa; this is my second year at Cochise College. I was previously enrolled in the Early Childhood Education program, but I recently switched to the Elementary Education program. I am currently an Instructional Aid for Special Education at a local elementary school, thanks to this job I discovered that I love working with Special Education students and I hope I can work as a teacher one day on this field so I hope this class can help me dig a little deeper into our educational system structure. I also enjoy different activities like hiking, running, boxing, yoga, among others, I grew in a family of bodybuilders so physical activity and nutrition are a very important part of my life.

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Hello everyone! My name is Luz Olivares, I am 18 years old, and this is my first year in Cochise college. I am beyond excited to have this class with all of you! I plan to get a degree in elementary education; more specific I want to be a first-grade teacher. I hope to learn as much as I can about education, so that one day I can be the teacher I aspire to be. Somethings about myself is that I love spending time with my family I just get full of joy and love every time I am with them. I really enjoy cooking and baking, also I really like spending time to myself out in nature. One of my favorite things to do is take pictures of the sunset. I really look forward to this class!

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I am so excited to be in this class! I currently work at a school that specializes in special education. I teach first and second grade and my students are mainly high needs. I previously went to Cochise College and earned a welding degree but quickly realized that welding wasn’t what I wanted to do. I then applied at the school I am currently working at as a para and found my love for teaching special needs children.

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Hello, my name is Scarlett. I became a mom a little over a year ago, and watching my son grow has been the most incredible joy of my life. Being in early childhood education classes and working at a daycare has given me so much knowledge that I naturally use with him every day. I’ve worked as a paraprofessional across all grade levels, but I’ve always loved pre-K and elementary the most. High school, on the other hand, felt like I was just another teenager in the crowd definitely not my favorite! At home, I share my life with my two sweet cats, Pumpkin and Elara, who are around five years old. They adore playing with my son and are truly part of the family. I was born in Germany and have actually moved to the U.S. twice once when I was just a baby, and again when I started 8th grade. Since 10th grade, Sierra Vista has been home. It took me some time and a few major changes to figure out the right path for me, but I’m so glad I finally found something that sparks real joy. Seeing children learn and helping them discover their own love for learning is amazing, and it inspires me every single day. I’m really excited to continue growing in this field and learning new things through this class.

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My name is Alexa Nichols and I’m 20 years old. My goal in this class is to obtain knowledge of how to act correctly in a classroom, especially to make kids feel safe and comfortable in it. I have not been in a classroom on my own, but I’ve been a teacher’s assistant. I have also worked as babysitters and that’s the reason I decided to stay in the education field. I have a little daughter who’s 2 years old. I graduated high school being a single mom and well I’m not done. Hopefully I’ll graduate on May of this coming year and well I think that’s all I can say for now.

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I was born and raised in Douglas, AZ, and I’m a proud mother of two. I currently work at Cochise College –Douglas Campus as the Events Management Specialist, a role that represents one of my biggest career goals.

Now, I’m ready to take the next step: completing my bachelor’s degree. Balancing work, home life, and raising two daughters has often meant putting my education on hold. However, with this new job and opportunity, finishing my degree has become one of my top priorities.

I love working in the educational environment. From serving as a long-term substitute, to working as an Athletic Coordinator, and now as an Events Management Specialist, I’ve seen firsthand the impact education has on shaping tomorrow’s leaders. I truly believe in the power of education, and I’m passionate about being part of that guiding process.

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Hi! My name is Gabriella, but my preferred name is Gaby. Right now, I am currently studying general education. Outside of school, I like playing video games, listening to music, and spending time with my friends and my boyfriend. From this class, I want to gain a deeper understanding of how people learn and how education can be used to help and support other people. I hope to learn strategies that make teaching and communication more effective. I also want to explore what role education might play in my own future career.