Welcome to my World

Julie Rust. Mother. Grad Student. Teacher. Wife. Sister. Daughter.
There is always so much more to us than can be stuffed inside these labels.

A PhD candidate in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Department at IU, Bloomington, I find myself pleased to be back in the "student role," after four years of teaching middle school and high school English in Terre Haute, IN. My 14 month old daughter, Lucy, consistently colors my life with her giggles, facial expressions, babble, and occassional, real, English word. My amazing husband of five years, Justin, is a compassionate nurse, and spends three days a week working 12 hour shifts and the rest of his week taking care of our child and all of the other things I throw at him.

I absolutely love to travel, eat, run/work out (which naturally follows after all of this eating), act in theater, play music (jazz trumpet), and, of course, the obligatory English Teacher hobbies . . . I like to read and write. Most evenings you can find me on the couch simultaneously watching Food Network and "reading" with my daughter, who has recently learned to climb said couch. Our recent move to Bloomington this summer has also facilitated a love for walking around downtown, enjoying the flair of this diverse "little" town.

I came to IU obsessed with wanting to learn more about student engagement, community in the classroom, digital literacies, authentic writing in the English classroom, and the ability (and lack of ability) to "transport" during the reading experience. I'm also interested in how schools and policies need to change and adapt in today's technologically-charged learning environment. I still find myself driven by these questions and am struggling to actually narrow down my quest here at IU.