mssunnysideup

The story of Ms. Sunny-Side-Up: It was the summer before my final year of undergrad at UW-Madison, working at a local community center for the season. A 4th grader there couldn't remember my name, so he called me "Ms. Sunny Side Up". My nickname growing up was, Rea Sunshine (my first name is pronounced ray-uh), so this newfound nickname from my summer camper was fitting and validating. This experience gave me a reminder that I have a positive impact on the students that I work with- even if it's just for a summer. This camper didn't know my family nickname, he just remembered me because of how I made him feel. That is my ultimate goal as an educator; to help illuminate every student's passion for life and learning. Years later, after becoming a teacher at an alternative high school, I have continued to try to shine a light on every student's pathway. One way that I try to do that is to create innovating, engaging, and relevant courses for my students that allow them to see purpose in their education and flexibility to demonstrate their learning. Interdisciplinary curriculum -- the organic fusing of content areas and applied skills -- gives students an opportunity to build their academic skills in the context of meaningful topics. Second to making a positive impact on as many students as possible, curriculum is my next favorite thing about being an educator. Years ago, when I was in moving through elementary school and into middle and high school, my education became more and more siloed as I progressed through the grades. I had a math class, an English class, a Social Studies class, and a Science class. Very rarely did those subjects overlap or interact, even though, in reality, our whole lives are interdisciplinary. My goal when designing curriculum is to provide educational experiences that are engaging, related to the real world, and build connections between core content areas. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016 with a dual-degree in Elementary Education, grades 1-8, and English as a Second Language. I completed my Master's Degree in 2021 at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, focusing on Cultural Foundations of Community Engagement and Education. I have taught middle school "at-risk" and 5th grade and am currently an interdisciplinary teacher at an Alternative High School.