Jen+Crawford


 * [[image:0305111124.jpg width="269" height="207"]] || ===Jennifer Crawford===

[|McKinleyville, CA]
I've recently moved to Humboldt County, CA. My husband got a job teaching drawing and painting at Humboldt State - such a change from bright and sunny and hot GA. I do miss Athens! I feel fortunate to be finishing my degree in December in Early Childhood with a reading endorsement. I am not currently teaching. Prior to going to grad school, I taught art for 6 years. I taught one year in a rural elementary school, 3 years in a large inner city school in Tampa then 2 LONG years at the alternative school in Athens.

Most of my time is dedicated to my very fun 13 month old son, Jackson. (I have a hard time admitting he's a "year", and now I understand why parents continue to count months.) He's talking up a storm with a vocabulary of 25 "words". He's beginning to stand on his own and brave a few steps. It's very exciting. I'm looking forward to chasing him around - a new form of cardio for me!

I'm taking this course because I'm very interested in educational psychology. I took the Creativity course with Bonnie Cramond and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm interested in learning about gifted students as well as struggling learners. I have taught many special education students. In my years as an art teacher I've used methods that are similar to gifted education. I believe techniques used in gifted education could benefit all students. ||

TEACHING METAPHOR

Teaching is like a road trip across the country. You have your route planned. You have Tom Tom to make sure you take all the right turns. Then in the middle of the trip, a new place has caught your fancy. Either you see the importance and beauty of the site, or your family has begged to go. You decide to go there and spend a little extra money and time to see this special place. In the long-run, you still end up landing at your destination. However, your life is enriched by the detour.

.

MY TOP 10 (not really in any order, just the top of my head)

1) My family 2) Jackson is now WALKING !! 3) Discovering my new surroundings. 4) The excitement of finishing grad school and hopes of a new career path. 5) Riding horses. 6) Reading books - of all kinds. (Water for Elephants remains my favorite) 7) Trees - drawing them, sitting under or in them, the Redwoods, Oak trees (except during hurricanes), the wind in the trees ... 8) Having driven across the country and seeing the absolute desolation that still remains in the west. 9) The beach - East and West 10) Learning

BACK IN THE DAY
 * [[image:me1.jpeg width="319" height="248"]] || I was a very special child, as you can see by my beautiful green "hair" with a blue headband and mud-encrusted legs. I was already a "ceramicist" at this age, obviously. My obsession with wet dirt began as a wee tot, and I never grew out of it.

I relate to all of the characters in __Raising Brains__ in varying ways. I still can't decide which one the most. Here's the conglomerate of "me":


 * **Stan** - quick learner, early reader (although i wasn't reading college texts), zero athleticism, daydreamer, bug people until I got my way, hypochondriac (and my mom had nursing textbooks to make this worse!)
 * **Otto** - stubborn with a quick temper but very loving most of the time
 * **Magnolia** - similar sense of humor (prankster), always getting siblings in trouble when they didn't do anything (my sister still brings up the time that we were at our grandparents', and i said, "OOOWWWW. Kelly's hitting me!", and my grandma made her go "clean" the basement), super gullible,SUPER scatter-brained ||
 * **Pandora** - preoccupation with death (losing loved ones is still my biggest fear, and i still think about it at least once a day and cry about it)
 * **Grandma** - kooky artist, singing and dancing EVERYwhere and not caring who sees me, attempt to be a home decorator with odd tastes, fun mom