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I was the youngest of three girls for my parents and my sister's are 9 and 10 years older than me. Needless to say, my dad was ready for a son. Instead, he got yet another daughter. That did not stop him from naming one of his children after himself. His name is Michael, so mine is Michelle.

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I am imperfect, and that's perfectly fine.
We all have fractures
You are yours; I am mine.
What's more important is that I am kind
I love hard; I speak my mind
I can be broken, just like you
Broken things can be repaired, or turned to something new.
I am even lost at times but some might think to say
That those who are lost can wander and be found another day

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My Weakness on Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

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My Weakness on Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

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I feel that I could do a better job of including culturally relevant texts in the classroom. I will have much more control over this factor when I have my own classroom, but it is such an important factor.

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My Strength on Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

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My Strength on Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

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I believe that because of my upbringing, I am always conscious of how I treat my students. I am constantly making an effort to give them a safe learning space where every part of their cultural and self-identity is accepted. It is always my number one priority to let my students know I care for them unconditionally regardless of where they come from or what they believe.

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When I was young, my older sisters taught me to read before I entered school. We never had much growing up and my sisters wanted me to have an upper hand in my education in hopes that maybe I could break the cycle. When I was in Kindergarten, I came home with my first chapter book and my sisters slowly taught me to read it. When I finally learned every page, they let me read it out loud to them in a performance and made me feel so smart. That was one of the first moments I remember loving literacy.

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I love to hang up my hammock outside on a tree and read a book or journal. The outdoors is my favorite place to be and reading outside is very calming. I also love to read when I go to the beach and can hear the ocean nearby.

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The Important Book: My Favorite Literature Experience

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The Important Book: My Favorite Literature Experience

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My favorite literacy experience took place when I was in the fourth grade. I was an avid reader and always challenging myself to read more difficult texts. I had gone to the school library and asked the librarian what the biggest book that had was. She informed me that it was Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I checked it out and returned to class and my teacher was skeptical of my fourth grade reading capabilities. I set out to prove her wrong and though it took quite awhile, I finished the book and passed the A.R. reading test without an issue. This proved to me that I could accomplish whatever I wanted and that I could use peoples doubts in me to motivate myself.

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I have loved books, reading and writing since I was very young. Books were a way for me to escape from my surroundings and I was always at my school library. I was always very successful in Language Arts classes and this is ultimately what I would like to teach. As an adult who is in school full-time, I do not often have time to read for pleasure, but I always find a good novel when I have a break from school. I often read articles and stories online though to learn about whatever thing my brain is currently thinking of.

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I was not raised in a religious household and spirituality was not a value instilled in me as a child. To this day, I do not affiliate with any particular religion, but I do find myself to be spiritual in my own way. This is something that has become the foundation for my cultural values and beliefs. I am able to appreciate and learn about the beliefs of others without influence of my own beliefs. This has made me much more tolerant and compassionate toward others. I was raised with very conservative views and closed-minded people. Anything that was different was bad and certain members of my family were very vocal about their opinions. This always bothered me as a child and is a major reason that I am open to the experiences of other people. I support people's choices to live live anyway that suits them as long as it brings no harm to others and aim to always be a safe person to talk to, regardless of a person's beliefs or circumstances.

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One of my biggest cultural discomforts is that as a a White teacher, my students with other ethnicities will feel that I do not understand their struggles or feel the same about them as I do White students. This could not be further from the truth, but in reality I will never know what its like to face the same struggles that they do.

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Since I was raised in a very conservative household there were certain biases my family instilled in me that had to be unlearned as a teenager and adult to be the person I wanted to be. Although I fought their opinions about race and sexuality, I would subconsciously find myself holding my purse or getting nervous at night around a person of color. As a late teenager and adult

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When I was a child, my family was very poor. My two sisters and I often didn't know if we would have electricity when we arrived home from school. We moved frequently and mostly lived in motel rooms with a single bed for my family and I to share. We occasional were able to rent a trailer for a few months, but I did not have stability until around the fourth grade. At that time, my sisters had moved out, and my father, grandmother, and I we were able to rent a trailer until we finally moved into a house my junior year of high school. I moved out on my own when I was 18 to live with my boyfriend, who is now my fiancé. We have financially supported each other and taken turns working to get each other through school. He has since graduated and I am in my final year of college. Though I did not have many resources as a child and have never had much financial privilege, experiences in my adulthood with the world around me have taught me what privilege truly means. I must acknowledge that I am a White female, which gives me some level of privilege as opposed to a person of color. It saddens me that our country allows these institutional and societal ideals to remain, but without acknowledgement of my own privilege, I am part of the problem. In light of current events, I have been exploring and learning about ways my privilege can be used to support those who face discrimination.

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My favorite character trait about myself is my empathy for others. Though sometimes it can be a downfall and I take on more than I can handle to help others and neglect my own self-care. I feel that my level of empathy helps me understand that every person has a story and that you can't know what someone else is going through in their life. This keeps me from making snap judgments based on a person's behavior in the moment and offer support instead of criticism.

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Growing up, I struggled greatly with self-esteem and body image issues. It took me well into adulthood to find any part of myself that could be considered my "favorite". However, I have put a lot of work into appreciating things about myself, and now I would consider my favorite trait to be my eyes. My sister, my dad, and I all have the same color blue/grey eyes and my three nieces do as well. It's something that links me to my family and is something we have in common.

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An Important Object

Music has always been an important part of my life. I collect vinyl with my fiancé.