Maria Leman
Morton, IL
Hello! My name is Maria Leman. I am currently a senior at Illinois State University. I lived in Morton, IL the majority of my life and that is where my husband and I made our home. I recently got married to Clinton Leman of Morton, IL on February 17th, 2013. I will be student teaching in the fall at Willow Primary School in Pekin, IL, District 108, through ISU's PDS program.
Teaching was something I knew I wanted to do since I was in Kindergarten. I was the little girl that collected all of her teacher's "leftovers" after the school year was over so she could fill up her own school room in her basement. Yes, I taught imaginary students and graded assignments and projects that my imaginary students "worked" so hard on. Now I am excited to take my imaginations to reality and not only to teach my students but also love, mentor, believe, and aspire my students.
As soon as I was old enough I started doing anything I could to be with children. I babysit almost everyday during my summers. In high school, my three best friends and I created a camp for kids. We had 40 children come to our camp. We had themes for every day that coordinated with our activities, games, crafts, and snacks.
I am involved with my church's Vacation Bible School program and teaching Bible Memory to children in the Pre-K and Kindergarden classes. I am still involved in the Bible Memory program once a week, and Vacation Bible School during the summers.
I received the Golden Apple Award as a Senior in High School. I have committed all my summers as a college student to Golden Apple Summer Institutes where I tutor and teach small groups in the inner city schools of Chicago during the mornings. During our afternoons we were taught by some of the most knowledgable teachers in the state of Illinois. Some of the courses that we were involved in were: Classroom Management, Charlotte Danielson, Diversity, Art in the Classroom, Suicide Awareness, Common Core, RTI, ELL, and many more. With my scholarship, I have also committed 5 years of teaching after graduation to low-income and low-acedemically preforming schools.
I also was blessed with an amazing opportunity to travel to Mexico where our church has an orphanage of 40 children. During my five week stay I taught preschool to seven children where each week I had a theme and then each day was a sub-theme. I also had a language barrier in Mexico. Most of my students could understand some english but