My name is Jyll Curran. I am a wife, mother, teacher and student. I grew up in Orange County in what used to be a small town, called Brea. I lived down the street from a cute boy who was one of my best friends. I've been married to him since 1997, and, yes, he's still cute after all these years. We have two young daughters who attend the private school where I am currently teaching. I attended Mariposa Elementary school in my younger years, then I went off to Brea Junior High School, where I was class president. In high school, I attended Mater Dei in Santa Ana. I have always had a love for math and science, even while I was growing up. I had many experiments going on at any given time, some my mother approved of, but most were secret. There were a few spills, ruined furniture, and one or two explosions, but no humans or animals were ever harmed, except one very curious younger brother, and that was only once.
My computer experience goes way back to the 80's, when I was very good at maneuvering my way around X-tree pro. Does anybody remember that one? I worked in a real estate office while going to college, so that is where I learned to use it. At my first teaching job, I used a program called GradeQuick to keep track of my grades. It was only used for the staff's purposes at that time. The students did not have access to it. Currently, I use GradePro to keep track of and upload my grades. The students have access to their grades from my website, which is generated by TeacherWeb. My students also e-mail me for homework help in the evenings. I use a PC both at home and at school. I am proficient with WordPerfect, Microsoft Word and most e-mail programs. I also have a website for a small business that I run, where I upload pictures and projects and keep a short journal. On a daily basis, I use technology quite a bit, both in my classroom and for my home business. However, I am not familiar with very many of the technical terms associated with computers, so I do feel inadequate in terms of being up-to-date.
I do believe in educational equity for all students, unfortunately our society is definitely not there yet. I hope we will be someday, but in my opinion, we are getting further and further away, especially in the case of the lower socio-economic students and ESL students. I worked in a group home tutoring program in Orange County when I first graduated from college. Those kids were from many different backgrounds, although the majority of them were Caucasian. The things that they most had in common were that they were extremely uneducated, extremely poor and extremely discouraged, especially the high school students. I would like to be a part of changing their bleak futures, but it seems to be such a daunting task. I don't think our government truly realizes the problem or that the problem is so out of control that no one can grasp it. We, as educators, can give these students encouragement and knowledge, but at some point it is ultimately up to the kids themselves to choose success in the future. I just want to be there when they need the guidance, and to pick them up when they fall.
