Hello,

My name is Michelle Thornton. I recently got married to the love of my life, so I apologize now if i use the wrong name on future submissions. I received my undergrad from UAA in history, and now I am still here in Anchorage studying to become a Secondary Teacher. Although I have not had any experience teaching in a classroom setting, I have worked as a coach for competitive gymnastics for the last 6 years. It was through my job, that I discovered how much I loved working with adolescent age students. The ages I teach range from 6 all the way to 18, but I have found over the years that i prefer working with the older kids over the younger ones. I love the way they look up to me as a role model, and I love seeing how much of an impact I make on them. Especially with a sport like gymnastics, the girls I coach find themselves coming across big mental barriers that we work together on over coming. I hope someday to teach social studies and history at the Middle school age. Through this program, I want to gain a broader understanding of how young students learn and function. Already, after two weeks of classes, I am finding myself implementing a lot of what I’ve learned in my gymnastics practices. I am very excited to see where this program can take me, and how much more there is to learn from other teachers and peers who have had experiences in these settings. I will not begin my student teaching until next year, but I am already looking forward to learning from my future mentor, and using a lot of classroom techniques that we will learn in this class and others. I, like many other student teachers I’m sure, have a perfect vision of how I’d love my future class to look and run. Ever since I was young, I’ve always noted teachers that I thought were particular good at working with their classes, and I plan to mirror their techniques as I go forward as an educator.