Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Pen


My name is Elizabeth Waetjen and I am a first year (feel like I am in Harry Potter) graduate student at the University of Alaska Anchorage. I graduated in May 2013 with my bachelor's degree in English Education with a minor in History. I received Honors from the English department as well as I finished my degree in three years.

My future career goals include many things. First I would like to get my master's degree in English and pursue my dream of teaching. I am also working on getting a Certificate in English Education with endorsements for teaching 7-12th grade. Perhaps in the future (but not too far off) I would like to get a doctorate degree as well. In short, I will probably end up being a professional student for awhile.

My interests in English include Fantasy and Mystery as far as genres go (Sci-Fi is growing on me though). I love the topic of education and how teachers present information to students. I have a special interest in teaching children with special needs, such as autism, how to read and write. I am currently working on a program that I am designing myself on how to work with special needs children in learning how to identify letters/numbers and how to correctly write those letters/numbers. Dyslexia is a particular interest in this program as well. Aside from that, I like to learn more about digital literacies. I find the language of the technological world fascinating and in fact worked with that topic in my undergraduate thesis. How teachers have to approach the technology question and how the language associated with it fits into the classroom is another key topic of interest to me.

I don't have much spare time but when I do find some, I like to paint and do art projects. My husband and I own an art business named Fifteen Birds Art. I also love to bake. I can bake just about anything and if I haven't tried to make it yet just give me the recipe! I can decorate cakes, bake traditional Italian desserts, and I can even make my own homemade puff pastry. I hear that my carrot cake is pretty good. My husband and I would like to open a bakery in the future. I have also recently taken up yoga. Pretty good stuff!

So that is just about everything to know about me...Oh! And I am working on writing my first fantasy novel.

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