Wisdom from the Middle: Spreading a Little Sunshine on my PLN

Here we go! Michael Mills (@aquiamigo) has pulled me into some Twitter fun and convinced me to share a little bit about my life outside of teaching. Here's a link to his post as well as a link to the post that nominated him, written by Sandy Kendell (@edtechsandyk). I only presently know Sandy through Twitter as a member of my PLN, but I'm really excited to be sitting on a panel with both Michael and Sandy at SXSWedu in March 2014!

From what I've read on several blogs, this challenge started out with the Sunshine Award and became a way for educators to share about themselves and learn about other members of their PLNs.

Here are the rules…

Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
Share 11 random facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
List 11 bloggers. They should be bloggers you believe deserve a little recognition and a little blogging love!
Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer and let all the bloggers know they’ve been nominated. (You cannot nominate the blogger who nominated you.)

1. Michael Mills nominated me for this, teaches me awesome ways to use technology in my classroom, and has presented and worked with me several times in the past few years. As our mutual friend Donna Wake says, "He's the next big thing in education." (and I'm super fortunate to work with him!)

2. Random Facts:

When I was a toddler, I slept with books instead of stuffed animals. My love for books has not died down since.
I received my favorite birthday present ever in my whole life on my 8th birthday. My dad rented a hot air balloon and surprised me with a ride around town. It's one of my most vivid memories.
In college, I competed in the Miss Arkansas pageant twice. I made the Top Ten both times and received enough scholarship money to pay for my senior year of college. I never did capture the Miss Arkansas crown, though. I quit competing the day I was offered my first teaching job.
My perfect day would involve sleeping in, waking up to hot coffee and an excellent book, and literally doing nothing else all day.
I move at a frenetic pace, and I always have. When I has a kid, I used to always get in trouble for walking ahead of my parents. At work people make fun of me (in a nice way) for always "clacking" down the hall.
As a young educator with no children of my own, I still call my students "my kids." I hope I always, always love my students enough to refer to them as "my kids," even when I really do have my own kids.
My favorite food will forever and always be peanut butter.
I went to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth for my freshman year of college, but then I got homesick and transferred to the University of Central Arkansas to finish my degree. UCA allowed me to build relationships with professors and educators in Arkansas that may never have otherwise developed, so I feel like it was definitely the right call in the end.
I am a truly left-handed person. Most left-handed people can do at least some tasks right-handed. I cannot do anything right-handed at all.
I can only sneeze in twos. Never just one sneeze, never three sneezes. Just two. Every time.
It is a sad but true fact that I never truly learned how to ride a bike. Maybe someday someone will teach me!

3. Answers to Michael's questions:

If you could choose who would play you in a movie, who would it be? Tiny Fey. I don't even have to think about it. I adore her and we're both brunettes!
If you had to work a minimum wage job, what would it be? I would probably work in women's retail. That's what I did before I started teaching, and I loved getting to meet people and dress them up!
What decade produced the best music and why? 90s. Pop princesses. Indie rock. Boy bands. Grunge. I could listen to 90s Pandora radio all day, everyday.
What movie makes you cry every time you watch it? The Blindside. So much kindness and generosity. It's just beautiful to me that those kinds of stories can come from real life.
What book took you the most amount of time to read? Gone with the Wind. I read it for the first time in 6th grade. It took me a whole semester, but I was determined to finish it. As an adult, it takes me a lot longer to read anything nonfiction.
What television show not on now would you like to see return? 30 Rock. See above comments about my love for Tina Fey. I would also have loved it if The Office never ended, but all good things, eventually, must come to an end.
If you could have a vacation home anywhere, where would it be? Fiji. I want one of those little bungalows out in the middle of the ocean. I've pinned about ten of them on Pinterest. Unfortunately, they are all out of my teacher's salary price range on vacation homes :)
If you could have dinner with anyone living today, who would it be? That's a really tough question. I think Maya Angelou. Her work is really inspiring to me, and I would want her to teach me how to teach my students to love poetry. It's probably cheating if I write down two, but I would also really like to sit down to coffee with J.K. Rowling and talk about Harry Potter for several hours. Could I maybe have dinner with Maya and after-dinner coffee and dessert with J.K.?
Which is better, Star Trek or Star Wars, and why? I pick Star Trek. I don't have a good reason why. I think it's just a matter of preference.
If you could make one federal law by fiat, what would it be? This is a tough one. I think I would make a law that requires adults to retake their driving test every 10 years. However, I may only currently feel this way because holiday traffic has been awful and I live by the mall.
What’s your favorite Schoolhouse Rock video? Conjunction Junction. Not even a contest.

4. Eleven people I'm glad I follow on Twitter:

Note: This list is a combination of people I have never met but constantly find myself favoriting and retweeting on Twitter mixed with people I know and admire in "real life." Also, they are in no particular order. I copied and pasted them from my "following" list on Twitter :)