Hi!  I'm Melissa Gibson, your Teacher of Record for this course. I hope you have as much fun with class as I'm going to! This is a "get to know me" page, and I'll give you info about myself that might make this class seem a little more personal.  I have finished my 3rd year at the University of the Cumberlands and it has been a wild ride!

  Professional life:

I've graduated from several colleges - all Kentucky bred.  High school was at Pulaski County, then Somerset Community College, then Eastern Kentucky University, then Union College, then UK. From all that I have a music & math bachelor's degree, an Education master's degree, a Library Science master's degree, and an education doctorate in Instructional Systems Design.  For the last twenty plus years I have taught in Kentucky  K-12 public schools in music, math and in the library.  I've been at Science Hill in Pulaski County, Middlesboro Middle School and East and West Side Elementary Schools, Bell County High School, and Squires Elementary in Fayette County.  I have worked at the Education Library at UK, at the Genealogy Research Room at the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives, and at Lexington Public Library as a Reference Assistant.  In South Dakota, I spent one year as a computer teacher at Mitchell Middle School, and  three years teaching computer applications at Dakota Wesleyan University. My four years at Lindsey Wilson College taught me a great deal about working with pre-service teachers. After retirement, I am teaching an adjunct course for University of the Cumberlands Graduate Program.

Family info:

Married 35+ years to Gary Gibson, who has been a pharmacist, is a CPA and business teacher, and is now teaching business and economics classes at University of the Cumberlands.
Son Lee, who finished a doctorate in math at Cornell, and is teaching math at the University of Louisville. He provided me a great daughter-in-law who teaches music for Jefferson Community College and a small Catholic elementary school. They do a lot of church music activities. They have two little girls (my granddaughters!).
Son Beau, who has a Rice University vocal music performance degree. He married Kelly in 2002. She earned her art degree in 2008. Beau sang the lead in Mozart's The Magic Flute in Rome, and I got to go hear him sing! Now he's singing anywhere he can get a job - currently Germany, and Los Angeles. He and Kelly gave us our first grandson. Both my boys are great boys  (and I mean great - 6'3" and 6'4" respectively).

Church info:

Presently, Gary & I are members of Main Street Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Kentucky. I get to play the piano there. At my last church,  Columbia Baptist, in Columbia, KY, I was privileged to get to play the piano and organ for the service, choir and different groups of singers. I've also been a member at Rosemont Baptist in Lexington, First Baptist Church in Harrogate, Tennessee and East Cumberland Baptist Church in Middlesboro, Kentucky, and Mitchell Wesleyan Church in South Dakota. In these churches God let me work in the music programs, teach Sunday School, and work in Bible School. God is a strong presence in my life, and getting stronger every day.

Hobbies info:

By now you can also probably tell I love fiddling with computers. But I also love to sew, crochet, garden, READ, and lay around on the couch and watch movies. Maybe now that I am retired, I will get to do those things more often!