ACSutliff, 102 Fans, 43 Hubs, Joined 5 months ago
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Parrster Interviews ACSutliff
This first year teacher has the coolest three wishes ever!
1. Tell me about something you really care about?
More than anything else in the world, I care about the people in my life. All the students
who touch my life every day, the great people I get to work with, my awesome husband
and friends, and my great big family. Not to mention, all the fantastic people I have met on
Hubpages since I started hubbing five months ago. Without all those people, I would not be
who I am, and none of the other things I care about would even matter.
2. Everybody has someone or something that inspires them. What/who inspires AC,
and why?
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been inspired by stories. Personal stories, bed
time stories, great American novels, short stories. I believe every moment of inspiration is
worth telling about, and the best moments are found within the pages of a book. My favorite
inspirational story (written by Elizabeth Silance Ballard) is about a teacher. My goal as
teacher is to change the life of one of my students the way Mrs. Thompson changed Teddy’s
life. I want to inspire someone like that. One day. And in the meantime, I hope to inspire
people with my own stories.
3. If you were to stumble across the genie bottle, what three wishes would you make?
I would wish for Hermione’s time turner so I could write and catch up on sleep and still have
time to work and spend time with family and friends every day. I’d wish for a Sonic Pen that
could rival Dr. Who’s Sonic Screwdriver, so I could write as fast as I can think. And a matter
compiler from The Diamond Age that could make me the best chicken burritos on the planet
(my cooking is atrocious).
4. From the acquired wisdom you have gained up to now, what are the core ones you
live by?
I’d like to share a couple poems to answer Parrster’s great question. The first is the motto at
the school where I teach. The second poem reminds me that we should always be reflective
in our words and actions. I truly believe that all things good come from looking inward and
examining yourself.
I choose to live by choice, Not by chance,
To make changes, Not excuses,
To be motivated, Not manipulated,
To be useful, Not used,
To excel, Not compete.
I choose self-esteem, Not self-pity.
I choose to listen to the inner voice,
Not the random opinion of others.
I am a Nugget
(No, not a HubNugget! Our school mascot is The Golden Nugget.)
Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
5. Share about the one Hub you’re tempted to write, and what’s holding you back?
Lately, I have contemplated creating a series of short stories based on my dream journal
entries. All I need is a time turner and a sonic pen and a matter compiler, and I’d get it done.
Did I mention I’m a first year teacher experiencing what’s called severe survival mode? I love
my job, but it doesn’t leave me with much free time.
6. Run us through a perfect day for AC.
I’m tempted to use my imagination to describe my perfect day, but instead I will tell you
about my most recent nearly-perfect day. I made it to school by 7:00 a.m. and hurried to
make sure I was ready to teach. We were finishing up the Barbie Bungee Jump lab in my
science classes, doing literature circles in reading, and starting a math investigation about
equivalent fractions in my math classes. My students wrote wonderful science conclusions,
had great book discussions, and discovered many different ways to find equivalent fractions.
All day long, my students listened well, helped each other, and learned some amazing things.
To top it off, my principal came into my room and took a picture of my classroom for
our next inservice day, and he gave me very positive feedback on my teaching. As a first-
year teacher, you can imagine I was ecstatic. I was able to go home at a decent time (before
5 o’clock!) for a change. At home, I had a great talk with my husband about his day as a
student teacher, and we went for a walk, made dinner together, and had time to watch a
movie. Oh, and I even got some private time to hub. Add a bag of popcorn for the movie,
and it would have been perfect!
7. If there was one event in history you could change, just one, which event would it
have been?
I’m going to have to go with changing personal history for this question. I would travel back
in time to save my brother’s life.
8. Your story Inside My Head deals with the issue of epilepsy from a very real
perspective. How did such a novel come about?
The inspiration for Inside My Head came about when I was a middle-schooler, more than
ten years ago. There were two people at my school with epilepsy, one who continued to
come to school despite severe daily seizures, and they inspired me to create my characters
Kaden and Mirna.
The motivation to keep on writing, revising, editing, and drafting the story came from all
the personal stories I discovered while researching the subject. As I mentioned earlier, I’m a
sucker for personal stories. The more I learned about the people living with epilepsy in our
world, the more determined I became to share a glimpse of what it’s like to care for someone
with epilepsy, or to wake up from a tonic clonic seizure, or to have a friend who suffers from
uncontrolled epilepsy. Hubpages has allowed me to share what that’s like. If I can help just
one person by enlightening people about epilepsy, I will consider Inside My Head a success.
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