Hpend002

Hello! My name is Heather and I currently am in the education program at ODU. I hope to one day teach fourth or fifth grade children. That age group cracks me up! I am born and raised in Panama City, Florida and recently moved to Virgina for my husband's career. He is a US Navy Masterdiver. Hoo-Yah! I am a mother of four gorgeous (if I do say so myself) children. There are three girls and the baby boy. I love the ocean; it is a place of solace for me. I enjoy being outside and with my family. I love traveling and seeing and experiencing new things. I hope to travel abroad one day. Italy is my dream. I was raised through the eighties so it goes without saying that I love eighties movies, especially John Hughes films, and I love eighties music. I believe in living life without regret. For all of the mistakes that I have made in my life...that is what makes me who I am today. I can not change my past nor predict my future. I am exactly where I am supposed to be right now.

My daughter had a third grade teacher who put everything she had into teaching her class. In Florida, we test the F-cats (much like the SOLs in Virginia) and for the most part the focus is on getting the standards into the classroom so that the test scores will be strong. Many times in doing that a lot of potential knowledge gets put to the side and forgotten. This third grade teacher did everything she could to ensure that not only did the children get the standards for the testing but they also learned so much more. She incoporated what the students needed to learn with what they wanted to learn and the kids loved it. I hope to bring some of that energy and enthusiam to my future classroom. I hope to be a fair and effective teacher. I hope that my future students will look back at their time with me and smile. I hope that my future students walk away as well as their parents and know that they got the very most they could possibly get from my classroom.