I probably won't look this good when I finish the race but at least I have a hunk better looking than Tom Cruise waiting for me at the finish line!

Marathon Week!

This is quite the marathon week. You can feel "marathon" in the air! There are advertisements all over the subways, buses, and streets. This week is jam packed with events.
Tuesday- Robin Hood Dinner
Wednesday- Wine and Cheese Gala
Thursday- Marathon Expo
Saturday- Fireworks and Concerts
Sunday- Catch the 5:30AM bus to Staten Island and start my race at 10:20 with 50,000 other runners!!!!

I haven't been nervous until today but I have to keep reminding myself that I am ready and I can do it! I can't wait I am soooo excited!











Congrats to Teri and Leslie for finishing their marathons this weekend!! (I am kinda jellous of you girls :)

Check it out.. my UVU class is BIG time!!! jk :)

Daily Herold

Sleepy Hollow!!!

This last weekend we went to the legendary Sleepy Hollow with some of my favorite New York peeps and kiddos. It was perfect weather for a spooky day in a cemetery!!!





* Girls thanks for being just as excited as me about jumping pictuers
**Pictures courtesy of Abbie's Blog ( I haven't downloaded my pictures yet)

NEWSRELEASE!!!!

UVU ALUM BRINGING WOLVERINE SPIRIT TO BROOKLYN CLASSROOM
Newrelease-October 1, 2009


The picture tacked to the bulletin board in Utah Valley University alumna Lindsay Staples’ Brooklyn, N.Y. classroom shows her alma mater with Mount Timpanogos glimmering in the background. Her students – a class of about 20 3rd graders, all of them black, all from one of the nation’s roughest neighborhoods – think it’s fake.

“They’ve never seen mountains like that,” Staples said. “They think it’s a fake picture.”

Staples, a 2006 graduate of UVU’s School of Education, teaches a class of mostly immigrant children at Achievement First East New York Elementary charter school. It’s a far cry from Utah, but Staples was well-prepared for her position teaching underprivileged children thanks to her experience at UVU, where students have to spend a few weeks of their junior year teaching at a highly diverse school in Utah.

“I always thought I wanted to go this route,” Staples said. “But I taught for two weeks at Escalante (Elementary School) in Salt Lake City and that totally sold me on it.”

As soon as she graduated, Staples took a position at Redwood Elementary School in Salt Lake, where her class was made up entirely of Hispanic students and a pair of Sudanese refugees. Now, in New York City, her class is almost exclusively the children of immigrants from Trinidad, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Ghana and other countries around the Caribbean and West Africa.

Because lack of education is epidemic in the Brooklyn neighborhood where she teaches, Staples said her school is focused on getting students to think about post-secondary education from day one. “Kindergarteners can tell you what college they want to attend,” Staples said. In fact, students at Achievement First East New York aren’t even called students – from the moment they walk through the doors they’re referred to as “scholars.”

As a result, each classroom in the school takes on the name and identity of a university or college around the country to keep students’ minds focused on their ultimate goal. Last year, Staples taught under the flag her co-teacher’s alma mater, Vassar College in New York, but this year her classroom is covered in Wolverine Green.

“I never thought I’d be using the University’s name again,” Staples said with a laugh. “But all day long it’s ‘Utah Valley do this,’ ‘UVU come over here.’”

The rest of the 3rd grade is Harvard, Columbia and the University of Massachusetts and the teachers instructing the classes hail from a wide range of backgrounds, including many who are either currently in or alumni of the Teach for America program, which places recent college graduates in urban and rural schools to help expand educational opportunity for the less fortunate children in our society. Staples said the school’s principal is a Jamaican immigrant who put himself through Columbia and Cornell and “is all about pushing these kids.”


The encouragement seems to be paying off, as the East New York school has posted excellent results in standardized test and recently graduated its first class with a very high percentage of them going to onto post-secondary education, according to Staples. Because of the nature of the charter school, students are chosen for acceptance in a blind lottery and there is a waiting list of more than 1,000 for Staples’ school.

“I went to the lottery last year and the auditorium was packed,” Staples said. “The families of the names that weren’t drawn were devastated. It’s a huge opportunity for them to come to this charter school”

The public high school in that area that primary schools fed into closed down a few years ago, Staples said, because graduation rates were so low and dropout rates were so high.

Staples’ multicultural experience may be at the extreme end of the spectrum, but studies and initiatives from Utah universities indicate that teachers increasingly find themselves in classrooms with large numbers of minority students. By 2050, one University of Utah study suggests, those minority groups might not be minorities at all.

That information prompted School of Education Dean Briant Farnsworth, Associate Dean Linda Pierce and Associate Professor Axel Ramirez to form the Latino Educators of Tomorrow program to identify high school juniors and seniors who want to become teachers and support them through the remainder of high school and their college careers. Thanks in part to that program, there are currently 11 Latino students enrolled in professional education programs at UVU.

Back in Brooklyn, Staples might as well be teaching in Utah Valley with all the Wolverine Green being flashed around her classroom. Word of her very young UVU class bounced around the University and T-shirts, posters and other UVU information was sent to the help decorate the UVU Brooklyn campus. Staples has even posted a YouTube video of her class chanting “UVU,” something they do each Friday during a reading circle workshop with other classes to work on citizenship skills. Because so many of her students are the children of immigrants or immigrants themselves, Staples said much of the curriculum is about immigration and American society and citizenship.

If teaching in an environment like East New York sounds exhausting, that’s because it is. Staples’ school day is extended, lasting from 7:15 a.m. until 4 p.m. with after-school programs after that. Maximizing the kids’ time in school not only increases their exposure to the curriculum, it decreases their exposure to the rough streets outside.

“It’s one of the most rewarding jobs you could ever have,” Staples said. “You work to death but you also love it to death. It’s motivating to go into a job where you leave every day feeling like you made a difference.”

And as far as college is concerned, Staples has a group of 3rd graders who are pretty well sold on Utah as their choice for higher education.

“They all know their graduation date,” Staples said. “In 2022 they’ll be graduating from UVU.”

Presenting Utah Valley University class of 2022!

I never in a million years thought that I would ever use my college name again….. Our school's mission is for our scholars (students) to not only pass and complete Elementary/High school but also that 100% of our scholars graduate from top colleges. This is a pretty presumptuous goal seeing that this neighborhood has a high school passing rate of 21%. In preparation of this the grades are referred to as the year they will graduate from college (3rd grade=2022) and the classroom's are named after the college the teacher graduated from. Therefore, this year my classroom is called Utah Valley University. I spend most of my days saying "Utah Valley take out your books" or "Utah Valley get in line". It is a crazy phenomenon. On a whim I emailed the president of UVU (Matthew Holland) to ask for donations for my class. I thought it was a long shot but no more than an hour later I a reply asking my students' shirt sizes and asking permission to do a news story on my class. UVU supplied my class with shirts, pencils, banners, and lot of really cool UVU stuff. Our first assembly my class marched down wearing all their UVU gear and chanting "Utah Valley University... You know!". I have been a proud UVU alumni ever since.




A HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to all the people who have donated to my class in honor of my marathon!!! I am so blessed to have so much support in my life. If you or anyone you know is still interested in donating visit my race page http://www.robinhood.org/give-tribute/gift-registry/registry.aspx?r=LindsayMStaples ..... Just look at how cute there are.. you can't help but to donate :)

72 Hours!

I needed to get away from the city a get fix of Utah and family so I made a really quick(72 hours) trip to the Wasatch Front. It was well needed and very rejuvenating. We had fun getting pedicures, shopping, talking, 4 Wheeling, Thriller, visiting family and eating out.
The two BIGGEST REASONS I went home.....
JULIA AND HAILEY

You the stereotypical crazy aunt that pinches and kisses cheeks and the kids avoid because she is so overwhelming.. I think I am turning into that aunt.. I can't help it she is so stinkin' cute! Look at those kiss marks.