Blog #2: Connecting School & Home Experience

Connecting School and Home Experiences In junior high I started studying French as well as playing competition soccer. In ninth grade I joined the high school cross country team. I enjoyed taking French because it was a fun class for me but my life really was sports. I identified myself as a runner. While running I got a few stress fractures, had to wear a boot, and sit on the sideline. I kept on waiting and waiting, but my legs simply became more and more painful. My running coach recommended I go see a sports medicine doctor. I had multiple tests run over multiple visits including a MRI, nerve testing, and a very memorable compartment pressure test which involved needles the size of pencils. No one knew what was wrong, but they knew one thing: I was not to run anymore. I was devastated. I cried for two weeks straight. I felt that my identity had been ripped out from under me and that I had nothing. It was that summer in 2005 that I first went to France. My uncle was gracious enough to take his three nieces (two of which were graduating and I because I was the only other niece) to Paris for a week. Paris was simply magical. I didn’t think once about running. There I realized that the sun still came up every morning and that life went on with or without running, with or without everything that was familiar to me. That first experience in France was pivotal for me and has pushed me to become a teacher. If I can help students to learn that there is a world out there bigger than them it is worth it to me to teach. I want to help students get out of their heads and their little worlds and realize that there is more to life than high school, sports, drama, or girls. There are other countries, other people, other cultures, other foods, other ways to do things “right.” I want to help students discover the world in which they live and how they fit in that bigger context. Studying abroad in France also shaped my thoughts on the French people. It is one thing to visit the city of love for a week, and an entirely different matter to live in a French city for a year on your own. I loved speaking with them, eating with them, spending time with them, and taking classes from them. I learned a lot about the culture and the people there whom I respect. I understand why they can be annoyed with Americans (I began to be annoyed with Americans towards the end of my stay- we are so annoying and disrespectful!), why they may appear cold, as well as what is important to them. Having such an in-depth understanding of the people will help me in my teaching because I will be able to debunk myths and help students to understand why people do things and act differently than they do. This is a critical skill to learn in our ever growing multi-cultural society. Culture is something so complicated yet beautiful and I feel that many problems in the world would be resolved if we could learn to understand others. Learning to communicate in a different language also helps people to understand others better and how they think. This knowledge and these skills are part of the foundation of my teaching. For those of you who are wondering what happened to my legs I can run again. I found out I had a rare syndrome that cut off my blood supply. Here is a picture of what my legs looked like after surgery.