Hello, my name is Alisha Carrisoza. I am a fifth grade reading teacher and high school soccer coach. I am twenty-one years old, and I am currently in my second semester of my first year teaching.  In high school, I played soccer for a man named Tim Erickson also known as the Grinch (due to him making us run so much during Christmas break one year- we all threw up). This man pushed us to be the best person… you read correctly… not player, not top scorer, not even the soccer team with the most wins… He taught us, encouraged us, and expected us to be the best person we could absolutely be. I played soccer during the most challenging time in my life and because of this man… I became a teacher and a coach.  I chose to become a teacher because I wanted a career where I could embrace my talents and positively influence individuals. You see, I am incredibly good at talking. I don’t meet a stranger. I knew my entire life I wanted a job where I could talk ALL THE TIME. I’m good at it. I also wanted a job to show God’s love like it had been shown to me. I didn’t care what I taught. I just wanted to teach, show, and really love kids. I wanted to do this because even though my home was almost perfect… my soccer coach showed me real, raw, unconditional love - always. I wanted to be that for someone.  Yes, I teach screaming, hormonal little rays of sunshines. We are loud. We are crazy, but we are brilliant. My goal as a teacher is to raise functional members of society along with including some of the Mississippi standards. Something I would like to research more is state testing in schools and their effects on student learning. As a teacher, I feel like state testing is very limiting to teachers and students. I feel as a teacher that by me teaching students how to take a test - I am failing them as an educator. I refuse to just teach the test like my administrator wants. I refuse to limit myself and judge myself based on a test made by people who are not educators, who do not make an equal test, and who do not care what those students learn. As an educator, I find it quite confusing how we give one test for all students, but teachers are required to teach multiple ways because all students are different. Even though this topic may not be as interesting to others, in my field, it is a topic that is quite appealing to the eye. The grant writer in this weeks video talked about how when he ask for money one time then he has to say thank you seven times before asking again. When teaching, I have to teach a topic forty-seven ways then explain to my boss why my students cannot pass a test that provides the information in one way. It is beyond frustrating. Therefore, I would love to continue researching the pros and cons of state testing for school districts, teachers, and students, because those tests really test the Jesus in me.  Faith was an ongoing motivator in my career. I grew up being shown God’s love through my parents. As a child, I brought all kinds of p ...

1. Hello, my name is Alisha Carrisoza. I am a fifth grade reading
teacher and high school soccer coach. I am twenty-one years
old, and I am currently in my second semester of my first year
teaching.
In high school, I played soccer for a man named Tim Erickson
also known as the Grinch (due to him making us run so much
during Christmas break one year- we all threw up). This man
pushed us to be the best person… you read correctly… not
player, not top scorer, not even the soccer team with the most
wins… He taught us, encouraged us, and expected us to be the
best person we could absolutely be. I played soccer during the
most challenging time in my life and because of this man… I
became a teacher and a coach.
I chose to become a teacher because I wanted a career where I
could embrace my talents and positively influence individuals.
You see, I am incredibly good at talking. I don’t meet a
stranger. I knew my entire life I wanted a job where I could talk
ALL THE TIME. I’m good at it. I also wanted a job to show
God’s love like it had been shown to me. I didn’t care what I
taught. I just wanted to teach, show, and really love kids. I
wanted to do this because even though my home was almost
perfect… my soccer coach showed me real, raw, unconditional
love - always. I wanted to be that for someone.
Yes, I teach screaming, hormonal little rays of sunshines. We
are loud. We are crazy, but we are brilliant. My goal as a
teacher is to raise functional members of society along with
including some of the Mississippi standards. Something I would
like to research more is state testing in schools and their effects
on student learning. As a teacher, I feel like state testing is very
limiting to teachers and students. I feel as a teacher that by me
teaching students how to take a test - I am failing them as an
educator. I refuse to just teach the test like my administrator
wants. I refuse to limit myself and judge myself based on a test
made by people who are not educators, who do not make an

2. equal test, and who do not care what those students learn. As an
educator, I find it quite confusing how we give one test for all
students, but teachers are required to teach multiple ways
because all students are different. Even though this topic may
not be as interesting to others, in my field, it is a topic that is
quite appealing to the eye. The grant writer in this weeks video
talked about how when he ask for money one time then he has
to say thank you seven times before asking again. When
teaching, I have to teach a topic forty-seven ways then explain
to my boss why my students cannot pass a test that provides the
information in one way. It is beyond frustrating. Therefore, I
would love to continue researching the pros and cons of state
testing for school districts, teachers, and students, because
those tests really test the Jesus in me.
Faith was an ongoing motivator in my career. I grew up being
shown God’s love through my parents. As a child, I brought all
kinds of people to my house. I loved that no matter who I
brought, where they came from, or what their home life was like
I knew my parents would love them like their own while they
were at my house. I WANTED TO BE THAT. Now, I am. My
classroom is a family room- full of love. With faith and with
God I am able to pour into these kids a love some have never
seen. There is no greater feeling then showing, teaching, and
helping a child believe in love.
Hello,
My name is Dani Sevel. My professional experience
encompasses the Marketing and Communications field, just in
several different industries. I’m currently in the Marketing and
Communications field as it relates to the security industry. I’ve
worked in the Marketing field for about four years now. Prior to
working in Marketing, I have worked on and off for about five
plus years in the defense contracting industry. I have held
administrative job titles, titles dealing with deployment on the

3. private security/military side, I’ve worked in operations and
have worked in the insurance industry. I don’t necessarily know
what industry I most like. I think the quote in life I most
identify with is from Mark Twain; “the two most important days
in your life, the day you were born and the day you find out
why.” I feel like purpose and discovery play a huge role in self-
discovery and a huge role in being your best self.
I’m still deciding where my interests lie and what my 5-year
plan looks like, but in the meantime, I have a wide array of
research topic interests. I did an in-depth research paper on
Kenneth Burke’s theory of identification and its uses/benefits in
regards to military torture tactics, which I found to be very
interesting and also a project I could spend the next 8 years
working on only to need another 8 years to complete. I’d like to
get into the technical writing field, contract specialist area, or
grant writing field. I enjoy how different layers and integral
parts of a company have an equal part in creating this final
product, this contract when in relation to contract proposals and
bids. My Bachelor’s degree is in English, Writing & Rhetoric,
which I received from George Mason University. I don’t feel
like my biblical worldview has influenced my career choices,
rather it was my education and experience. I am Jewish, and
don’t feel I have the same “worldview” as what’s being asked. I
think perhaps that my personal and first-hand experience with
"my" biblical worldview has influenced me as a person, not
necessarily on my career path, just as a person in general. It's
the teachings of the old testament that have shaped me as a
person, it focuses on how you treat others, not to be ignorant of
others' beliefs and tto basically be a morally good person. I
believe those teachings have influenced me as a person, which
has in turn, influenced my career growth, but not the career
field i have steered towards.
From the reading, something that stuck out to me most was
from David Dobrin, “any statement embodies alternity- states
what is and simultaneously brings into the domain of
consciousness what isn’t,” (Johnson-Eilola, Selber, 28). I think,

4. the way I can best connect my responses to the specific text
mentioned, is for me to press on my uncertainty of research
interest and career path. In relation to the passage by David
Dobrin that I found interesting, my uncertainty too can be
considered ambiguous, just as Dobrin’s argument. Dobrin;s
argument unveils uncertainty and dissolves its own pretenses.
Looking at his claim, “…states what it is and simultaneously
states what it isn’t” (Johnson-Eilola, Selber, 28), we can see his
use of defining something while still not knowing what it is
could relate to my uncertainty in identifying just one topic area
of interest.
A. Selber, Stuart, and Johndan Johnson-Eilola, editors.
“History, Rhetoric and Humanism.” Central Works in Technical
Communication, Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 20–32.