My name is Laura Handrich and I am from Peoria, IL.  I have lived all across the United States including Arizona, Indiana, Texas, and Illinois.  As a result, I attended five different grade schools.  At the last grade school I attended, I had a very influential junior high math teacher who clearly demonstrated what a good teacher should be like.  I have also loved working with children, so I knew I wanted to be a teacher.

     College has been a very interesting adventure for me.  I started college at the age of fifteen and began to work on an Associate's degree at Illinois Central College.  Many people ask me why I did not want to finish high school.  My answer is that the high school I attended was not preparing me for college.  I completed an Associate's degree in education in May of 2003, at the time when all of my friends were receiving their high school diplomas.  In July 2003, I received my GED and enrolled at Illinois State University.

    I have now finished my bachelor's degree from ISU in Elementary Education with endorsements in math, science, social studies, and language arts.  I am looking to begin my teaching career and plan on working on a master's degree in administration over the next few years.  In the future, I also plan on completing a master's degree in mathematics to expand my teaching certificate to include secondary education.