Hi everyone! I am Maria Kuhr! Spending time with my family and friends is one of the most important things for me. I grew up in a family that is really close and without the help and support from my whole family, I would not feel as confident in who I am as a person, where I am today and where I am going. I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and lived with my parents, three sisters and dog. All of my cousins lived close so I spend a lot of time with them as well. I have nannied two of my cousins for the past 5 years and they have truly inspired me to become the best version of myself I can be for myself and my future students. I love to explore and try new things, I am always up for an adventure and am willing to reach out of my comfort zone. I am so excited to start a new journey of fulfilling my childhood dream of becoming a teacher, I feel like I am right where I am supposed to be.
As I went through school, writing always felt easy to me. I was always able to jump into the writing process without much difficulty. I had an overall positive writing experience and I enjoyed writing. I am a spontaneous writer. I have always been a writer who does not necessarily plan out what I am going to write before I start writing. I will typically just look at the prompt and start writing something. When I write I get thoughts and ideas written down in different formats and then I see where they can fit in and work together. I have always been told I was a strong writer and I have never really disliked writing. Sometimes I can find it peaceful to just sit down and write out different thoughts, facts, etc. When I write for educational purposes I also feel like I have a purpose. I feel like I can use what I have learned and really showcase that. In the past I have been able to learn even more through my writing and reflective abilities when it comes to school. However, moving past educational writing or writing for the purpose of learning, I love to write in general. One of my favorite things to do is to write notes to people, sometimes short notes and sometimes longer notes. For example, I will leave short notes for my family around the house when I am leaving or when they are leaving. I will write notes and post it for my roommates, encouraging them, motivating them, telling them how I love them, etc. I write these because I can see it makes people feel heard, seen and valued. I like to write “real”. I know sometimes it is best to use academic language and strong wording, but I also like to write just as I would talk, so people can feel what I am writing and may understand better. As I am writing this I am realizing just how much I write and how sometimes it feels meaningless or silly but actually I am always writing with some sort of purpose. As we talked about in class, there are different definitions of writing and these definitions can vary in different situations. I truly believe that everyone writes with a purpose and that everyone is a strong writer, it just depends on the situation and reason for writing.
I am truly looking forward to learning about what it means to be a teacher of writing and exploring myself as a writer as well. I have a positive outlook on this class because I feel like this writing course will help me fall in love with writing. I want to fall in love with writing both for myself and my future students. I want to learn different ways to write and practice writing according to the many different definitions that writing may have. Making meaning in school can help foster the growth of students. We can work together to find and make meaning in a purposeful way. My students deserve to have a teacher that loves to teach and loves to teach different subjects. Students can feel and see when a teacher is struggling. I want to be a teacher that inspires students and allows students to feel seen.