Sunday, April 22, 2012

Embrace Your Nerdiness

Latin II, Mr. Cameron’s class was my first challenge in my high school academic path. There was about seven of us in the class. Latin was required when I went to the catholic high school so when I switched over to Public HS they just put me in Latin II. I remember David P. turning around one day in class and saying... “How did you get in this class?” His inflection was clear, I wasn’t as smart as the others. I never forgot that.

At that time in my life, I was in charge of our house, cleaning, cooking and working sometimes on school nights in the kitchen at my dad’s bar. Not to mention the on going drama in my social life with my cheating boyfriend. LOL ... There was not enough time for studying so a “C” and even my first “D” reflected my little effort.

Throughout high school, I maintained a B average and managed to graduate in top quarter of class. Still, my self-image was always poor. I dropped out of college in 1971 because I believed my goal was unachievable and out of reach. It took years of my perceptive husband Fred’s constant affirmations and you can do this and then at last a turn around.

When I returned to college in 1981 to finish my last two years I gave 100%. Like the scarecrow in Oz, I had a brain. As an education major, the courses I took made me realize for the first time there were reasons for my rough road in some courses besides the overall lack of effort. It became very clear I had ADHD. I recognized some of the clues in my Ed psych class. It was easy to see I was a tactile & visual learner not auditory. Some call it “Right Brained”. The hands-on college courses had me charged up.  Gardner’s Seven Areas of Intelligence was an inspiration and I vowed I would include all seven areas in my lessons. I have kept that promise.

My colleagues see me as an “out of the box” creative thinker. My style of dress has me a candidate for “What Not to Wear” wearing my collection of “94” converse shoes. Yes, I play in my classroom; I make up for the years of working in my youth when I color or dance with my students and my 50 marionettes. I embrace my nerdiness. 



1 comment:

  1. I do not think you are or ever were a nerd! I think you are VERY special and I know a VERY special teacher! I am and always have been very proud of you!

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