franciskelley's Website
About Me
This is the introduction I gave the class as our first assignment:
Hello all. I’m Francis to any of you out there who happen to be my grandparents, Franny to my little sister, and Fran to everyone else. Don’t be fooled though, as I must clarify to everyone who is not meeting me face to face, it’s like a girl’s name, but for a guy. I’ve tried for years to get people to give me a cool and appropriate nick-name, but have as yet been unsuccessful. Feel free to give it a go.
This is a picture of me playing Ultimate Frisbee, the love of my life. I’m the one catching the disc (not the one who obviously could not keep up). The organization that oversees collegiate Frisbee allows for 5 consecutive years of play after high school and through some clever planning I have been able to work it so I can play for Marquette’s team, despite my grad school status. This picture was taken on our spring break trip to Savannah, GA.
I spent my undergrad studying Physics at Denison University, a ridiculously small school in Ohio. Why did I choose to attend such a place at such a distance from my home of Madison? Denison boasts the 2nd best D-III swim team in the nation and I was fortunate enough to be able to compete for them. In addition to swimming, I also dove and ran track. I graduated with a BS in Physics in May of 2007 and entered into the Post-Bac certification program here at Marquette the following fall. I am seeking my certification in Broad Field Science and hope to teach either high school physics, or middle school general science. Some waver at the thought of middle schoolers, but I love that age and can’t wait to get involved.
As I mentioned, I grew up in Madison (and I would love to end up teaching there someday) but my family now lives in New Berlin. My mother is a federal judge for the district of Milwaukee and also teaches a couple classes for the Law Department here. My little sister, who will always be 12 in my eyes, just graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in Children’s Advocacy. She will be attending law school at UW Madison in the fall. As you can see, I am the black sheep of the family for not choosing a career involving law. You may have guessed that I like to keep active. In addition to ultimate Frisbee, I coach a Dive team in Madison over the summers, and I also took over coaching the Marquette Club swim team this year. I have competed in triathlons since I was about 12 and this year will be doing the Madison Iron Man in September.
I learn best in hands-on environments. When I can physically see or touch the material, it makes it a lot easier for me to make the connections. Having an online course about technology should benefit my learning style well.
I’d like to think I could live without a lot of technology. What I can’t live without is connections to my friends so I’ll probably say the internet or my cell phone just so I can call or email an unnecessary amount.
My favorite web sites center on the activities in my life. I frequent a national blog about ultimate Frisbee called rec.sports.disc as well as a local message board specific to ultimate in Madison. I guess I should say google as well since I use it to answer any question I may have about anything. I am a little to trusting of things I read on the internet… some say I’m a little too trusting in general, but I think it makes me a good friend. You should all know that we are all friends now, so we’re going to have to hang out sometime. Look forward to it, I know I am. Anything else you guys want to know, feel free to ask. I am borderline narcissistic when it comes to talking about myself but it’s just that I like to share. I’m equally interested in all of you and look forward to getting to know all of you throughout the course.
Peace out cub scouts,
Fran Kelley
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