Hello, everyone! My name is Stephanie and I currently live in Huntington Woods, a city outside of Detroit right next to the Detroit Zoo (literally: my house is three blocks away from it). I graduated from MSU's teacher preparation program in 2008 (and finished my student teaching year in 2009), and then started the MATC program in the fall of 2011. I teach English at a high school in Troy, Michigan, though I've bounced around the district a little bit and have also taught 7th grade English/Language Arts at our International Baccalaureate middle school.
I did not teach this past year as I was granted a year-long leave of absence when my husband's job transferred us to Italy for five months (from September to February - I blogged about our experience and though I still have quite a bit to catch up on, the address is http://lukeandstephbostic.blogspot.com/). This fall I will go back to teaching primarily 10th grade English, which I'm very excited about. I love high-school-level content and curriculum and consider myself a teacher who was drawn to the profession due to my love of the discipline of English. I strongly believe in the necessity of adolescents learning the critical and analytical thinking skills as well as the literacy skills we practice in English class. Recently, I have become especially interested in studies regarding different types of literacies that youth practice and the need to bridge students' in- and out-of-school literacies. I'm very excited to explore these ideas further in my own classroom and integrate new methods in an attempt to help, challenge, and motivate my students this coming year (which can be a difficult task when it comes to sophomores!).
My husband, Luke, and I in Florence.
I also love reading (of course), cooking, spending time with our puppy Siena (who has quadrupled in size since the picture below was taken!), camping (below Siena is a picture from our recent trip to Loon Lake in northern California), working on our house and garden, traveling, and being crafty, doing everything from knitting and sewing to refinishing furniture (or trying to, at least).
Our puppy, Siena
Loon Lake at dusk
I'm looking forward to exploring all of the issues on the agenda for this class and learning from everyone this semester!
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for such a personalized and engaging opening blog! Really cool to get a glimpse into your experiences and life.
First off, how awesome to get a year's leave to live in Italy! I know that bridge in Florence well, having spent time there when I was about your age. What a lovely, lovely place to spend time with your husband.
I appreciate your passion for English--both my wife and brother-in-law were/are English teachers. I think it's cool you are opening up the cannon a bit and bringing in more out-of-school practices. You seem to have a knack for technology, so that should be an interesting process for you.
I look forward to learning along with you in this class!!!
Kyle