All about me...Well My name is Kristen Hardy. My parents named me Kristen mainly because they just liked that name, however they decided to spell with an e instead of an i at the end to make it somewhat unique. English is my first and only language but I want to learn Spanish. I was born and raised in Grass Valley California and currently still live here with my family. My parents have been married for 30 years (this year), and I have 3 sisters, 1 younger, 2 older. I am a fun, relaxed, curious, creative, and sometimes stubborn person. I enjoy spending time with my family because we are all close and support each other through everything.
I have a boyfriend who has been in the Army for a little over 4 years now. We have been dating for 3 of those years and he is finally going to be finished serving his time this summer. He is a huge part of my life and my family, I look to him for anything and everything; we are best friends. My extended family is spread out all across the USA, which makes it very difficult to spend time with them. My grandparents were all very strong individuals and scared me when i was a child. They have all since passed yet I am grateful for the time I had with them.
My race is Caucasian. My mom's family is all Danish and Dutch and I have been aware and exposed to forms of Dutch culture my entire life, mainly by being exposed to my mother's large family; she has 3 sisters and 2 brothers. My father is a more complicated story...He was adopted at birth so up until 3 years ago we had no idea what his background was. However fate stepped in and connected my dad with some people who could help him locate his birth family. A month or so later he was spending time with the people who were locating his family when one of them handed him the phone, he said hello and heard a voice on the other end, but had no idea who it was until the person said "that's your sister." My family has completely changed since then and now we finally know that most of my father's family is Flemish. I'm still trying to discover what exactly that means, but I'm sure I'll become more in touch with that culture with time.
My passion since i can remember has been teaching/ working with children. I used to sneak out of Sunday school and help the ladies in the nursery down the hall. I truly love the feeling of making a difference in a child's life. I had teachers who were amazing and changed my life; I want to be that kind of teacher. I worked as an after school program aide and lead teacher for 5 years, and now I currently work as a part time nanny for a family with 2 wonderfully hilarious children. As a teacher the most important thing to me is for my students to feel safe, whether it be emotionally safe, or physically safe. Culture some into play a lot with safety being my goal. As we saw in the Happy to be Nappy video, those children being teased didn't feel safe and the teasing was coming from other students who didn't understand their differences. Getting to learn more ways to bring culture into a classroom setting to make each student feel accepted and unique in all the right ways will make me a better teacher all around.
Here are a few pictures :)
