Hello…it’s me (Kristen)

helllllooo from the other side,

My name is Kristen Beckmann.

I am a second year student at Chico State (graduating a year early – scary, I know) and I absolutely LOVE it! I am a Liberal Studies major and Special Education minor. I have wanted to be a teacher ever since kindergarten when I would play pretend and force my younger brother and cousins into taking my homemade spelling tests…I know, nerdy.

I love anything having to do with outdoors! Hiking, swimming, sports and everything in between. I have played soccer for nearly 15 years and I have played on two intramural indoor teams here at Chico State. I also enjoy hanging out with friends and family (16 -year-old brother Alex, mom and dad). They are my biggest support system and I am so grateful to have people like them in my life who encourage me every day.

As far as reading goes, I am willing to admit, I have never been a huge reader. I relate well with the statement made in class that I will scroll through Facebook and read all of the funny articles and stories people share, but I have never been one to search for a good book because I always use the excuse that I do not have time. I really am going to try to work on that and start looking for suggestions that will get me reading again because I really enjoyed it in middle and high school!

I am excited for this class though, because we have the ability to conduct research on the books we are going to read before we choose which one we think would be most interesting to us. I think the reason why I did not like reading in high school was that we were forced to read certain books and most of them were shamefully something I would pick up before bedtime to put me to sleep.

To me, a reader is someone who enjoys surrounding themselves with literature and puts in effort to comprehend it and think about different meanings of it. In Williams’ article, it really stuck with me that reading can be anything you want it to be. I think anyone can be a reader as long as they truly enjoy the content they are working with and are willing to spend the time understanding the material.