Tinton Falls Middle School
Reading and Language Arts
Mrs. Swanson
Reading and Language Arts
Mrs. Swanson
Here's a little information about me...
Welcome to my website. I would like to use this area of the site to provide you a little personal information about myself. I believe that in my role as a teacher we can all work together more effectively if we know and understand one another. So, here it is... a brief background to help you understand who I am, where I have been, where I am coming from, and where I want to take us.
I have lived a charmed life, perpetually surrounded by education and educators. I am overjoyed to be teaching eighth grade- my favorite grade to teach- here at Tinton Falls Middle School. I consider my job as an educator to be invaluable. I feel it is a very serious responsibility to help young people learn to think for themselves, and that is what I consider my job to be. I love this job, and every year, in addition to accomplishing the above goal, I also help young people to learn to express their ideas, interpret the world around them, and become more aware and thoughtful humans. The most wonderful part of the job is that every year I spend teaching young people, I learn and grow so much as a result of getting to know them.
I grew up in Connecticut, where my parents both worked as University professors at UCONN. My father is a botanist and my mother is a linguist. My sister and brother-in-law are also professors who teach creative writing. They are also both published writers. My sister has two published books of poems and my brother-in-law has two published books of short stories. I love academia, but I got into public school teaching because I strongly believed that language arts and reading skills are essential in exacting social change. I felt, and still feel, that everyone deserves a fair chance at pursuing their dreams and that this is a much more real possibility with good communication skills. I wanted, and still want, to give everyone the opportunity to have good communication skills in his or her tool belt, for no other reason than to interpret the world and express the self more effectively.
I went to Rutgers for my undergraduate education majoring in English and minoring in Psychology. I had a 3.7 average and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation, I worked at a children's portrait studio where, after only three weeks, I was made manager. I really enjoyed the managing and photography aspects of the job and I learned a great deal in the two years I was there, but, I longed to pursue my childhood dream of being a teacher so I returned to school. I got my masters at Rutgers in the Graduate School of Education with a focus on Secondary English Education. I did my student teaching at Long Branch High School under the expert guidance of Elford Rawls, now a principal. I got my first job the following year at Sayreville War Memorial High School in Parlin. It was a great year, and a year of great learning, but I left the following year to go on an adventure with my husband. We moved out to Santa Cruz, CA where I taught high school in the San Lorenzo Valley district, nestled among the redwood-encrusted mountains that tower over Santa Cruz. My third year at SLV, I was moved to eighth grade to cover a leave. I was terrified of moving to the middle school because of my own experiences in middle school, but that year with the eighth graders of San Lorenzo Valley Middle School turned out to be the best year of teaching I had experienced. I loved how open minded, enthusiastic and philosophically curious the students were. Ever since then, I have known that this is the perfect level for my strengths as a teacher. However, because we wanted to move closer to our families, we decided to come back to NJ. I found a job at Academy Charter High School in Belmar and accepted it. I spent four years at Academy, a special charter that buses kids in from Asbury Park and Neptune, where I learned one million lessons about teaching, life, and myself. I loved my job at Academy Charter, but I longed to return to middle school. Finally, in 2013, I got a middle school job teaching 6th grade at Markham Place School in Little Silver. IT was a wonderful year and I felt very successful. For the last two years, I have taught 8th grade Reading and LA here at TFMS and had the absolute best years of my career! What a great school and a great community to work in. I am very lucky! I feel that all these experiences have led me to this exact place and time. Not only that, all these experiences have equipped me with all I need to be an excellent teacher to the students of Tinton Falls Middle School. I am looking forward to a wonderful year!
I have lived a charmed life, perpetually surrounded by education and educators. I am overjoyed to be teaching eighth grade- my favorite grade to teach- here at Tinton Falls Middle School. I consider my job as an educator to be invaluable. I feel it is a very serious responsibility to help young people learn to think for themselves, and that is what I consider my job to be. I love this job, and every year, in addition to accomplishing the above goal, I also help young people to learn to express their ideas, interpret the world around them, and become more aware and thoughtful humans. The most wonderful part of the job is that every year I spend teaching young people, I learn and grow so much as a result of getting to know them.
I grew up in Connecticut, where my parents both worked as University professors at UCONN. My father is a botanist and my mother is a linguist. My sister and brother-in-law are also professors who teach creative writing. They are also both published writers. My sister has two published books of poems and my brother-in-law has two published books of short stories. I love academia, but I got into public school teaching because I strongly believed that language arts and reading skills are essential in exacting social change. I felt, and still feel, that everyone deserves a fair chance at pursuing their dreams and that this is a much more real possibility with good communication skills. I wanted, and still want, to give everyone the opportunity to have good communication skills in his or her tool belt, for no other reason than to interpret the world and express the self more effectively.
I went to Rutgers for my undergraduate education majoring in English and minoring in Psychology. I had a 3.7 average and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation, I worked at a children's portrait studio where, after only three weeks, I was made manager. I really enjoyed the managing and photography aspects of the job and I learned a great deal in the two years I was there, but, I longed to pursue my childhood dream of being a teacher so I returned to school. I got my masters at Rutgers in the Graduate School of Education with a focus on Secondary English Education. I did my student teaching at Long Branch High School under the expert guidance of Elford Rawls, now a principal. I got my first job the following year at Sayreville War Memorial High School in Parlin. It was a great year, and a year of great learning, but I left the following year to go on an adventure with my husband. We moved out to Santa Cruz, CA where I taught high school in the San Lorenzo Valley district, nestled among the redwood-encrusted mountains that tower over Santa Cruz. My third year at SLV, I was moved to eighth grade to cover a leave. I was terrified of moving to the middle school because of my own experiences in middle school, but that year with the eighth graders of San Lorenzo Valley Middle School turned out to be the best year of teaching I had experienced. I loved how open minded, enthusiastic and philosophically curious the students were. Ever since then, I have known that this is the perfect level for my strengths as a teacher. However, because we wanted to move closer to our families, we decided to come back to NJ. I found a job at Academy Charter High School in Belmar and accepted it. I spent four years at Academy, a special charter that buses kids in from Asbury Park and Neptune, where I learned one million lessons about teaching, life, and myself. I loved my job at Academy Charter, but I longed to return to middle school. Finally, in 2013, I got a middle school job teaching 6th grade at Markham Place School in Little Silver. IT was a wonderful year and I felt very successful. For the last two years, I have taught 8th grade Reading and LA here at TFMS and had the absolute best years of my career! What a great school and a great community to work in. I am very lucky! I feel that all these experiences have led me to this exact place and time. Not only that, all these experiences have equipped me with all I need to be an excellent teacher to the students of Tinton Falls Middle School. I am looking forward to a wonderful year!
Photo used under Creative Commons from bluesbby