Meet The Teacher
    Many people have a family business to pass from one generation to the next.  Teaching seems to be the business in the Davies family.  My mother, Bonnie, was an elementary school teacher for a few years in the Cicero Public Schools until she began raising children of her own.  My father, David, was an elementary school teacher in the Berwyn/Cicero area for 23 years.  I know it's in my blood to teach.     I was teaching others how to do things even before I learned to read, write, and do arithmetic.  My mom babysat for a little boy named Thomas when I was three years old.  Thomas was in kindergarten, and he had new shoes with laces.  He really like those laces, but Thomas' teacher wasn't going to let him wear them at shcool until he could tie the laces himself.  Because I'd seen my older brother tie his shoes many times, I had the task mastered in minutes.  After a few quick lessons, I had taught Thomas the simple skill.  He was embarassed because I had taught him, but he was grateful that he could finally wear his shoes to school.     I can still picture the big group of kids lining up outside our houses on my very first day of school.  Our mothers took pictures and then walked us aroung the corner to John L. Sipley School.  Although I only attended that elementary school kindergarten through sixth grade, the foundation for my education was life-lasting.  My sixth grade year at Sipley School was a very pivotal time.  I was given the responsibility of working in the library with first and second graders working with computers.  This opportunity was a great privilege for me.  A visitor came into our classroom second semester of that year.  Her name was Miss Olson and she was doing her student teaching.  The first few weeks she would watch from the corner of the room, but after awhile, Miss Olson was teaching us math and social studies in ways our teacher had never tried.  The new ways Miss Olson used helped the whole class understand things that at first seemed impossible.     The summer after sixth grade, my family and I moved to Thomson, Illinois.  It was a very difficult adjustment at first.  I moved from a grade school with 500 students to a community with 500 residents!  Being in a new place gave a chance to reach out and meet new people. When I first started school, the administrator made adjustments to accomodate for my educational needs. I had Algebra in the high school and band with the eighth graders. After the first week of school kids from all grades were asking me for help with homework.I just naturally became everyone's tutor. When I was a freshman in high school, I took on the task of teaching first and second grade Sunday School class at the Thomson United Methodist Church.  My high school summers were spent tutoring two young boys in math and reading. Many of my teachers could see my ability and passion for teaching.  As a junior in high school I was nominatded for the Golden Apple Scholar of Illinois Award.  After completing many written essays and an intense interview, I was chosen as a 1994 Golden Apple Scholar. The summer seminar that followed my senior year of high school was very exciting. Fifty-nine other future teachers and I were housed at DePaul University for six weeks while we worked in Chicago Public Schools during the day and attended seminars at night. I worked on the West Side of Chicago in a classroom with autistic children. I've never had and experience that ripped at my heart so much! I wanted to just give in to their evey wish but I could rarely understand what their wish was! I graduated from Western Illinois University in May 1998. In August of that year I began teaching elementary computers at River Ridge Schools.In August of 1999 I will be teaching fifth grade at River Ridge.     Teachers' shoes cannot be filled by all feet.I know that I have the patience and optimism necessary for the career I've chosen. I also feel I've received the proper training for teaching lessons that are essential to help children grasp the concepts of reading, writing, and arithmetic.  The experiences I have had are an aid to my preparations for my own classroom. There may not be a set mold for the perfect teacher, but I feel that I posess the qualities that are necessary to be a very effective teacher. Currently:  I am teaching fifth grade for the second year at River Ridge School in Elizabeth, IL.  I have just enrolled in a master's degree program at National Louis University.  In March I attended the Classroom Connect Conference in Chicago.  I highly recommend it to all teachers!