November 25

About Mrs. Scales

This is our classroom web page / blog site. Here you can review what we have done each day in class and get to know more about me, Mrs. Scales.

I grew up on a small rural farm just north of Farmland, Indiana. As a kid, I loved riding horses in the woods, climbing trees and playing outdoors. I was the oldest of the many grand-kids IMG_2506that ran around Granny and Papal’s farm, so I was a leader even as a child. I did gymnastics and could do a round-off and several backflips in a row. I always wanted to be a cheerleader but never made the squad.

In high school, I wrote for the school newspaper, Bear Facts and was the yearbook editor my senior year. I graduated from Monroe Central High School in the class of 1979. Shortly after graduation I unexpectedly joined the U. S. Navy. Not a lot of women joined the military back then. My first airplane flight was the flight from Indianapolis, Indiana to Orlando, Florida where I attended boot camp. After boot camp, I went to advanced avionics training and learned to work on F-14 Tomcat jets. They were not putting women on combatant ships in those days so my sea duty took place on the beautiful island of Bermuda.

When I returned to the United States I was stationed as a recruiter in Muncie, Indiana. I married my husband of 30 years, Steven Scales. Steve was a Senior Chief in the Navy and we were transferred to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I didn’t really want to go to Minnesota, all I knew about Minnesota was that it got really, really cold up there. We ended up loving it though and stayed for about 18 years. Our daughter, Jacquelynn graduated from both high school and then the University of Minnesota during those 18 years. I worked as a Human Resources Director during most of that time. I also graduated magna cum laude from Concordia University and was accepted into and attended the second-ranked Industrial Resources graduate program in the country, at the University of Minnesota. This was also the time of my life in which I wrote three genealogy books and six fictional novellas.

After Steve’s retirement, we decided to move back home to Indiana. Steve loves retirement, me not so much. He plays golf and messes around with old cars. I started substitute teaching and got hooked. I love working with middle school and high school age students. After about four years of full time substituting, I went back to school in the Transition to Teaching program and earned my Masters in Education degree from Indiana Wesleyan University. I then began working on my Ph.D. in Education with a focus on e-learning but stopped when I hit the statistics class and realized I may never get my student loans paid off.

I have always loved to travel and have found a way to combine my love of teaching with travel. I spent five weeks during the summer of 2011 in China as a Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad Delegate and traveled to Nepal through the Lilly Teacher Creativity grant four summers ago. In the summer of 2017, I received the Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad award again and spent four weeks in Bulgaria studying issues of immigration and visiting migrant camps.  My husband and I have visited 49 of the 50 states and we hope to travel to Hawaii sometime in the near future. We have traveled to England, Scottland, Ireland, France, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Italy, Turkey, The Dominican Republic, Mexico, and several other countries. I spend at least three to five weeks every summer in creative professional development activities so that I may start each school year out with something new and fresh to bring back into the classroom.

I have enjoyed four years teaching 7th grade Language Arts at Selma Middle School and four years teaching English 10 at Wapahani High School. I have taught AP Language and Composition and AP Literature and Composition, Etymology, and Creative Writing.  I was a part of the new Looping Program for English 9 and 10 for one year. Now I teach the junior AP English class (either AP Language or AP Literature), the Indiana University duel credit (ACP) classes W131 and L202, and all of the senior English 12 classes.  I love teaching and feel blessed to be working in the Liberty Perry district.

 

59 thoughts on “About Mrs. Scales

  1. Alexiss Dobbs

    I love getting to know you just by reading your blog about you! I feel like i have known you forever by just reading this blog!!! Keep writing about yourself! It’s soooooo interesting!!!!!!!!!

    Love,
    Lexi Dobbs

    Reply
  2. Robert Wilkinson

    Dear Mrs. Scales,

    I like your blog it’s very well organized and….well…just awesome keep up with the good work! I also like to read about you I didn’t know you wanted to be a cheerleader. WE HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON!!! Just kidding.

    Keep up w/ the good work,
    Robert Wilkinson

    Reply
  3. Sarah Lightner

    Robert Bailey AND me will tryout 4 cheerleading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! AND IF KYLE GARDINER TRYS OUT ILL REALLY TRY OUT 4 IT!!!!!! HAHA CONSIDER THAT VALERIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  4. Sarah Lightner

    BURN ON THAT BAILEY! IRKSOME IS A WORD!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I KNEW IT WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I KNEW ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  5. Jacquelynn

    Your room website is cool! The only thing is, there should be more on your ‘About You’ page about your daughter. She sounds really cool 🙂

    Reply
  6. Miss W.

    G’day Mrs Scales and students,
    Thanks for joining the student blogging challenge. I hope you enjoy the activities and make new friends by reading and commenting on student blogs around the world.

    Reply
  7. JennaMay

    Hi,

    My name is jenna and i was wondering if the contests are only for Mrs.Scales’s students or for anyone who i interested. I am starting a writing group so i am seeking competitions to enter and helpful writing tips or anything at all really. Thank you.

    Reply
  8. Mrs.Fickley

    I am a Reading teacher in FL and I LOVE the mythology blogs your students created. Would you be willing to email me the lesson plans / rubrics you used for your students? I would greatly appreciate not having to reinvent the wheel.

    Thank you for your consideration,

    Mrs. Fickley
    Reading
    John D. Floyd K8
    fickley_j@hcsb.k12.fl.us

    Reply
  9. JP

    Hi Jodie,
    Its been a long time. This is JP from VF101.
    I read your bio and it brought a smile to my face. We all had alot of fun back then.

    Congrats on what appears to have been a very successful career.
    Hopefully all is well.
    Jp

    Reply
    1. mrsscales207 (Post author)

      Wow, JP it’s been a long time. Thanks for dropping me a line. Yes, I love teaching. What’s up with you these days?

      Reply
  10. Regan

    HEYYYYYY!!!!!! we are in English and Emily and I are talking about book club!! YAYYY!! (: We are excited for this year with u!!

    Reply
  11. Katie and Haley

    Heyyyyyyyy!!!!! This is Katie and Haley in Honors English. Your voice is better today!!!!!!!!! Just got done with our work and seriously HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well glad your feeling better BYE BYE !!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  12. Regan and Emily

    heyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its emily and regan!!!!!!!we were reading the blog and stuff it is very organized so we have to give you a thumbs up on this website 🙂

    Reply
  13. katie smith :0)

    I am super scared for finals?! I am scared that I will get a bad grade and my grade will go down!!!!! I am going to study, study, study. So is this right? thursday we have 1, 3, 5, 7, periods for studing and friday we have 2, 4, 6, periods of studing. Is that right?

    Reply
  14. Julia Boyd

    Hi! I’m fellow 10th ELA teacher from TN and am working to integrate CC curriculum as we will transition next year. I noticed that are following their unit plans and wondered if I could “pick your brain” so to speak. I have previously taught in KY and have Units 1,6, and 8; however, it seems as if you are have a wealth of knowledge about CC and how to integrate it into your classroom effectively.

    Reply
    1. mrsscales207 (Post author)

      Julia,

      I don’t know about the wealth of knowledge, but I would love corresponding with you. I began by deconstructing all of the CCSS for ELA 10. That process helped me really dig in and evaluate what CC is asking of us as teachers. The first unit I did this year was directly from Quality Core. I wish I had more units designed by Quality Core, as I found their units to be very supportive of the higher order thinking required by CCSS. I love sharing and would be happy to provide you with anything I have that you think might be helpful.

      Reply
  15. efelder

    I stumbled upon your website and I was simple amazed. I intend to have blogsot/webpage for my students next year. This will be my first year teaching high school English. I am excited but a bit overwhelmed because there is so much that I want to incorporate technology-wise. I just wanted to tell you what a great thing you have going here!!!

    Reply
  16. Haley Voigt

    Wow Mrs.Scales was trying to find your email so I could send you a few book titles for book club and I read your “about Mrs.Scales” and you seem to have had an interesting life and it sounds awesome. 🙂

    Reply
  17. L Cote

    I really like the design and purpose of your blog. As an English teacher, it gives me a lot of ideas of how I can use blogging in the future as a resource for my students and their parents.

    Reply
  18. lknopp

    Great blog! My grade 11 students here in Vancouver, BC have just started their own blogs. Most of them have been blogging in creative ways about Merchant of Venice, and will soon be writing a few things for the school newspaper which we will link.
    It would be great for the students to be able to comment on each other’s work!
    https://mrsknopp.edublogs.org

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Isabelle Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*