Email: dwilde@santanlc.com
Site: www.santanlearningcenter.com/dwilde
I graduated from Arizona State University with my Bachelors in Elementary Education and am currently attending Grand Canyon State University to earn my Masters of Education in Educational Leadership. Next summer I will be finishing up the classes required to convert my Provisional Gifted Endorsement to a Full Gifted Endorsement.
Right before graduating from ASU I was able to marry my best friend from high school. We met and became friends in 1994. In 1998 we began developing a closeness as we supported each other through some hard times within our families. We engaged in June of 2005 and got married in December of 2006. Since then we have added 2 cats, a hyperactive dog (now 2 years old), and 2 beautiful little girls. Our oldest is 21 months and our youngest is 5 months. They are a handful but I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
Professionally I have always had a strong desire to work specifically with gifted children. Much of this desire comes from my experiences growing up as a gifted child in the public school system. Many of my teachers were not able to understand my differences and this resulted in many negative experiences. Instead of allowing it to affect me negatively, I decided to use those experiences as motivation to become a teacher and help prevent others from going through similar experiences.
Along with the giftedness came many of the “quirks” that are common among gifted children. I was very fortunate to have a supportive family growing up that was able to help me overcome and learn to control some of these characteristics, such as my intense desire to always win, my obsessive compulsive disorder, and my perfectionism. As an adult I still deal with many of the skin and noise sensitivities that are also common among gifted children. Where many see these types of characteristics as annoying or problematic, I see them as beneficial. I have the uncommon privilege to be able to relate to gifted kids. I am much more empathetic and supportive of these “quirks” since I know what it is like first hand to live with them.