Assignment 1A

Hello, I'm Jennifer Christensen.  I am a Chicagoland native and have been living in California for nine and a half years.  I attended college in the Midwest, but I always wanted to live where it was warm so about a year after obtaining my Bachelor's degree in Sports Business Management I moved to California.  I currently reside in the central valley with my husband and two beautiful children and I am pregnant with our third, due at the end of February.

I was a college athlete, I played softball at the University of Iowa for a year and then transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside where I pitched for three years and earned my bachelor's degree and coaching certificate.  After graduation I worked for a minor league baseball team in Wisconsin for a season and then made the move to California where I worked for another minor league team for a few years.  I loved my time working in sports, but I wanted to start a family and the hours during baseball season were not conducive to that.  I have been working for a non-profit agency for seven and half years and I am also currently pursing my Master of Education with a single subject teaching credential in secondary math with a specialization in educational technology. 

As I mentioned above, I have a wonderful husband and two beautiful children (soon to be three) who I love spending time with.  My husband and I share a passion for sports and we actually met through baseball.  We enjoy going to games and playing sports with our children.  Being from Chicago, I am a White Sox fan, NOT a Cubs fan.  My husband is a Dodgers fan, and I have become one as well, so I have adopted them as my favorite National League team.  I used to coach girls softball when I was in college and want to get back into coaching as my daughter begins to play softball. 

I decided to get into the teaching profession because I love math and working with middle school and high school aged children.  I think that it is important that they can see the importance of math and the relevance of using it in their every day lives.  I am not currently teaching, I have passed my CSETs, completed my specialization courses and have 3 credential courses left to complete.

My personality test stated things that I already knew about myself.  I am an extrovert, I enjoy interacting with people and I have broad interests.  I prefer to deal with facts, I take practical approaches and I am interested in clear and detailed information.  This clearly explains why I chose math as my content area.  Math is factual and the answers are always factual and clear.  There is a right and a wrong, there may be multiple ways to solve a problem, but there is always a clear answer.  My preferences are for sensation, I have a natural tendency to influence people by providing facts, evidence or detail.  That preference is also helpful for teaching math.  

My personality is ESFP, I am an action-oriented person.  I enjoy applying my people skills to achieve the tangible.  I take action and lead by example.  I also have a flexible and go with the flow personality which is beneficial for myself and my students.  Being flexible with regards to lesson plans is important because I may have to make last minute changes depending on the needs of my students, i.e. how quickly are they understanding the material or do we need to take a bit more time to cover it.