Introduction- Erika Kozub

By -
My name is Erika Kozub and I am a junior here at USC Upstate majoring in Middle Level Education. I am a local to the upstate, but originally born in Ukraine where I lived for 2 years before moving to the United States with my family. I graduated from Byrnes High School in 2015 immediately planning to attend USCU in the fall to major in education. I've known for a while that being a teacher was the profession for me. I love to learn, and love teaching even more. Coming from a huge family, I am constantly surrounded by kids and teenagers and I absolutely love it!  am an active member at Way of Truth Church in Inman where I am am a leader for many local missions and a Sunday School teacher. I am a huge coffee drinker and Disney fanatic! I'll cook just about anything, especially when I'm stressed. I'm a fish out of water and wish there were more hours in a day where I can find myself in a pool. My current obsession is my "old people" show on Hallmark Channel called When Calls the Heart which I've seen twice all the way through as I impatiently wait for Season 5.

I wish I had the time to read as much as I used to, but I definitely still have many favorite authors. I am guilty of being a basic girl and obsessing over romance novels. I especially love Christian authors such as Francine Rivers, Traci Peterson, and Karen Kingsbury. I also enjoyed the Hunger Games and Divergent series when I was in middle school. My favorite books, however, would have to tie with Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. I obsess over these books! The story lines were incredible, the writers were incredible, the way it was written was incredible! All around, i just absolutely LOVE these stories. Classics that will never get old. I've always enjoyed reading from a young age, but it wasn't until high school I thought it was a great idea to actually teach the literature I loved reading so much. So between my love of reading and my love for history, I couldn't settle on one so I went with both! I can't wait to see what the future of this class teaches in order to help me become the teacher I've often dreamed to be.

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 30, 2017 at 8:55 AM

    Hey Erika! I absolutely love When Calls the Heart, too! The storyline is awesome, and it's just a feelgood show. It's nice to take a break from reality sometimes and watch something that makes you feel good! I love the classics too, but you should definitely check out "Jane Steele", "Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice", and "The Jane Austen Project". The first two are modern retellings, and the last one is a time traveling delight. I read all three this summer, and they're great!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C
Read more