Prom Chaperone, April 2001

I was born and raised in southern California where I have lived most of my life, yet I was fortunate enough to have lived and traveled throughout south-east Asia in my late teens and early twenties. Living in and traveling throughout the region gave me the opportunity to see the art and cultural life of others first hand, although I was not overly thrilled about the idea of moving to Indonesia at first. I was seventeen, having just graduated from high school a semester early, I was just beginning to enjoy my new found freedom. I was given no choice in the matter, my father had been offered a position by his employer and he was not going to leave me behind.

After spending a few days in Hawaii and Singapore we finally arrived to our destination, our new home in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia. I did not know how I was going to survive - no car, no one to talk on the phone to, no shopping mall, no real television (all extremely important from my teenage perspective at the time) - but three days after arriving, from across a restaurant, I saw David, the man that would later become my husband. Our paths crossed over the next ten days until I finally got up enough courage to introduce myself.

After spending eight months in Indonesia, it was time for me to return to California and begin my college education at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), where I lived in the dormitories my first three semesters. David stayed behind and continued working and we maintained a long distance romance, becoming engaged a year after we met. Our relationship survived through letters, expensive phone bills, his visits to California, and me spending my summer and winter breaks back in Indonesia. After two years of college, not wanting to be apart from him anymore, I dropped out of school against my father's wishes, and David and I were wed in the spring of 1985. After honeymooning in Hong Kong and China, we spent the first year of our marriage living in Singapore. Singapore was a wonderful place to live, I was too young to fully appreciate it, but I was restless and bored and wanted to finish my education so David quit his job so we could move back to California.

After reestablishing residency, I returned to CSULB where I made the President's Honor List in the spring of 1987 and the Dean's Honor List in the fall of 1987 and the spring of 1988. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art General with Distinction in December of 1988 and I continued my education earning a minor in mathematics, a single subject teaching credential in art, as well as a supplementary credential in mathematics. I was also honored with a membership to the Lambda Chi Chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, an International Honor Society in Education. While taking an art education course, I designed and developed an educational art history board game that I hope to have published sometime in the near future or write as a CD-ROM/DVD.

It was during my last year of my university studies that David and I bought a house and moved to the Victor Valley, and we have been living in the high desert ever since. I did my student teaching at Hesperia High School and Hesperia Junior High during the 1990-1991 school year where I also volunteered as an assistant girl's Varsity soccer coach for the high school. The following school year I was hired to teach Drawing & Painting, Design, and Math A at Apple Valley High School (AVHS). I also coached the girl's Junior Varsity soccer team that first year, where we enjoyed an undefeated season. I also earned a California state "D" coaching license.

During my second year of teaching, I began attending the annual conference held by the California Art Education Association (CAEA) and was a presenter in 1995 and 1997. I am a member of National Art Education Association (NAEA), the California Teachers Association (CTA), the National Education Association (NEA), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Norton Simon Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I attended Teachers Week at the International Fine Arts College in Miami, Florida and I was a participant in RIMS The California Art Project (TCAP) for two weeks, both during the summer of 1995.

I began pursuing a Master's degree in Education - Instructional Technology at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) in 1995. From 1998 to 2000, I was a Mentor teacher and was trained in the Beginning Teacher Support & Assessment (BTSA) program and the California Formative Assessment and Support System for Teachers (CFASST). I also continued to teach a variety of art classes at AVHS through the 1998-1999 school year and the following year I transferred to open a brand new high school, Granite Hills (GHHS), within the same school district, Apple Valley Unified (AVUSD). I had finished the core classes for the Master's degree and was to the point of writing my project/thesis when I took a break to plan and set-up the visual art department for this new high school. While at Granite Hills High School, I served as the Visual Arts (VA) Department Chair along with teaching Cultural Arts, Cultural Arts II, Drawing & Painting, and Drawing & Painting II; the former two I designed and developed the curriculums that incorporated technology.

I am a chronic pain sufferer/survivor that originally affected only my right hand, arm, and shoulder that had its onset in October of 1995. I had never missed a full day of work because of it, I was too strong and stubborn a person to let it get the best of me and refused to let it stop me from enjoying my life and pursuing my goals, plus my wonderful acupuncturist kept my pain in check. Unfortunately in August of 2000, I was struck by a hit & run drunk driver as a pedestrian on inline skates, while standing at the bottom of a hill. Even with slipped discs in my low back and torn meniscus in my knees as a result of the accident, I did not take time off from work. With all the additional pain and stress, by that spring, my left arm began having similar pain problems as my right.

During the spring of 2001, I began diligently researching to try to figure out my pain disorders that lead doctors to diagnose me with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) along with other chronic myofascial pains, as well as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome all which may be a result of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Unfortunately when I began treatment for my hypothyroidism, another underlying endocrine disorders became exacerbated and my adrenal system failed. Because of the adrenal insufficiency (Addison's Disease), my body no longer produces enough of the stress hormone cortisol, for normal daily functioning let alone having reserves available in times of unforeseen stress. I must take daily cortisol supplements for normal cell functioning and take additional amounts when faced with extra stress.

I continued to work until the following spring, but teaching high school while no longer having adrenal reserves put me into near adrenal crisis situations all too often and I'd have to take extra cortisol and wait for it to kick-in. I was faced with the hardest choice in my life, looking into leaving my teaching career, and going out on disability. It was the toughest decision I had to make for myself, but I had to for my health. Unfortunately, this decision was made even worse when my unsupportive principal stepped in and placed me out on leave in the middle of the semester. It was not my choice to abandon my students, I had planned to finished out the school year, to have closure on that chapter of my life. I was emotionally devastated, it was truly a heart breaking experience for me. I didn't get the opportunity to teach some of my favorite projects for the very last time.

Instead of children, I have two wonderful dogs - Randy, a sheltie/cocker spaniel and Bonnie, an Australian sheepdog/Brittany spaniel mix. I love many aspects of art; painting, ceramics, weaving, sewing, and web design. Besides my passion for art, my favorite hobbies are skiboarding and inline skating. I first tried skiboarding over my spring break during April of 1999 and was instantly hooked!!! I hate the cold but I now look forward to winter!!! I used to inline skate a lot more than I am currently able. On a regular basis I would drive the 100+ miles to the Santa Monica Pier to skate with the LA Friday Night Skate. Since I lack the endurance to skate distances due to the chronic fatigue, I began participating in inline downhill racing. I was ranked 5th with the International Gravity Sport Association (IGSA) for the 2003 season and 2nd for 2004 season.

My biography is listed in several publications which includes: Who's Who Among America's Teachers, The World Who's Who of Women, Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, and Who's Who in the West.

K. Tishner