Krista with a K

Hi! My name is Krista and I am currently living in Temecula. I was born and raised in Napa, California which is in the San Francisco bay area. I attended kindergarten through high school in Napa and graduated from Vintage H.S. in 1992. When I graduated high school, my plan was to attend college and teach high school art or history. I attended Napa Valley College but was having trouble staying focused and dropped out. Unsure of what else to do, I attended UC Davis extension and got a certificate in graphic design. I moved to Southern California in my mid-twenties, got married and had my son who is now 11 years old. I began working as a preschool teacher and it rekindled my love of teaching, so I decided to start taking classes part-time at Mt. San Jacinto College while I worked. It took a few years, but I was finally able to transfer to CSUSM and this is my first semester. I now want to teach elementary school and I’m thrilled to be closer to my dream of working in education.

Although I remember a time when people didn’t have computers in their homes, I still feel like I was lucky enough to be exposed to them while I was still a kid. Our first home computer was an IBM PCjr which came out in 1984 when I was 10 years old. I loved playing games on it and even though it had no mouse and no hard drive it was pretty cool for the time. Being artistic, I loved being able to do creative things with computers and I’m amazed with what they are capable of doing these days. I have experience with PCs from personal use and Mac from using them in the graphic design program. I’ve been using the Internet since 1995 but technology seems to be moving quicker than ever. There’s so many new things that I would love to learn about, especially in relation to what I can use in my teaching career.

What speaks to me the most in the mission statement is the commitment to diversity. The teachers that I connected with the most growing up were those who seemed to accept me for who I was and who tried to nurture my unique qualities. I believe that classrooms should be a positive place for students to express themselves and grow as individuals. As a parent, I’ve dealt with teachers who wanted my son to be a certain way instead of embracing him for his creative spirit. I would love to be a part of a community that supports me in celebrating these diversities in my students. At CSUSM I look forward to gaining many skills that I can bring to the classroom and will be able to teach each child no matter what their learning style or individual needs are.