Marsha+Ratzel

Hi everyone....

My name is Marsha Ratzel and I'm thrilled to be a part of this community...it's always a privilege and adventure to meet new people....getting a chance to learn new things and make friends.

I've been teaching for about 20 years now and have found a niche for myself at the middle school level which is children ages 11-13 years old. I've been in a science classroom almost all of these years teaching everything from life to earth to space science and have spent the last six years with 11-12 years old learning earth science. I've also spent many years teaching math. Our middle schools are organized in such a way that most teachers usually teach more than one subject. I've really enjoyed this approach since it has allowed me to see the crossover of ideas from subjects that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. I have spent a fair amount of time teaching other things throughout the years that include reading, communication arts (our version of language arts), social studies and computer tech. In addition to the classroom work, I spent almost 4 years working out of our district office as an instructional coach for integrating technology and from there I spent a couple more years working as a school improvement coach (which is really "code" for helping teachers study what they think they'd like to improve in their classrooms!!!). I missed the kids so much and budget cuts allowed me to come back to the classroom fulltime about six years ago where I've been ever since.

I earned my National Board certification in science about 10 years ago and just renewed my certificate last year. I learned so much from going through that process about my teaching practice because I had to figure out how to tear apart what I had done with my students and figure out how to make it better. Since then I've had so much fun working with other people who wanted to earn that certification. They have taught me so much....I'm not sure I would be the teacher I am today without this opportunity. I've also been a part of several virtual teacher networks for about 12 years...those have been the lifeblood for me and have been the places where I've found my most trusted colleagues. Probably this is so because we feel so lucky to have found each other as we share interests in being better teachers, want to help each other grow, and just want to be positive forces for growth and change. About three years ago, I started working as an adjunct faculty member at a nearby university specializing in assessment and integrating technology.

As you can tell, I'm lucky because I've been so many places and met wonderful people everywhere I've been.

I haven't always been a teacher. I started my career as a hospital administrator and studied economics/applied math in college. Worked in a bunch of jobs in Boston and San Diego in the health care industry. Lots of this time was spent writing grants for demonstration projects and coordinating work with federal agencies. I did all sorts of crazy things with math modeling and management before I realized I was in the wrong career. Although I had a master's degree, it was in econometrics and wouldn't allow me to teach so I had to go back to school at night to get my teacher's license. I guess you could say that I've come to the teaching profession late in life. I like to think of that as a good thing....I know I love it and I have some other kinds of experience that informs who I am.

I'm also a mom to three kids who are now grown and out of the nest. My daughters are married to wonderful young men who I consider to be fabulous additions to our family....just the things we were missing!!! None of them live near me so I spend lots of time traveling between the cities where they live....and while it's fun...I miss them terribly as they are my best friends. We are goofy family that loves to play games, hang out, ride bikes and just family stuff. We are a nerdy group.....my oldest daughter and her husband are scientists in Houston...both are PhD biochemists and I really can't tell you accurately what they do...but one works at MD Anderson in cancer research and the other works with plant proteins. My middle daughter and her husband live in San Diego. She does financial analysis while her husband works for one of the cities doing water management (it's a huge deal in southern California where's there isn't much water). My son just graduated with a degree in philosophy and teaches at a community college in downtown Chicago. So you can see they are spread all over the United States which means I always have a place to visit.