My Story

~Once upon a time there was a 7 year old little girl who wrote a poem straight from her heart .~

My love for writing began at a very young age.I wrote a poem in second grade that my teacher really liked. Once I started writing I never stopped…When I was 8 years old I was the editor of The Speedy Special our neighborhood “news flyer.” It was copied off on a “ditto” machine at my mom’s school where she taught. (top secret) In high school I was on our Panther Tracks Newspaper staff, and after school wrote a few articles for the Maryvale and Glendale Star newspaper, a poetry anthology, and several short stories in Literature classes.

I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and attended Cartwright grade school, Maryvale HS, Phoenix College, and Arizona State University. While at Phoenix College I earned an AA degree in Journalism and then transferred to ASU. During my time at ASU I starting having second thoughts about the world of journalism and felt that I was called to be a lifelong teacher. I changed my major the spring semester of my junior year and started down a different path in life. It was a very scary time. It was at a big cross road in my life. I was hoping I was making the right choice. I thought that I would be able to write while being a teacher…but I was very naive about that idea.

After graduating with my elementary education BA and MA degrees, I signed my contract for a second grade bilingual teaching position at Avondale Elementary/Michael Anderson School in Avondale, Az. I stayed there and taught my heart out for 30 more years…same school, same grade. I guess I was lucky and I really DID get on the right path and made the right choices along the way. I loved being a teacher it was embedded in my soul.

During those 30 years of teaching I learned so much about children, the world, and myself. I married my husband Tom (who happened to be the PE teacher at our school) and we have a wonderful son, Marcus. We currently live in Goodyear, AZ.

I had the chance to be with literally 1,000 children everyday at our school and I learned as much from them as they were learning from me. I would encourage the students each day to always try their best and to follow their dreams, no matter what. After retiring in 2014, I realized I had one more dream that I had placed on hold. I remembered what I had encouraged my students to do on a daily basis. I felt it was time for me to walk the walk…and with an abundance of support from my family, friends, and former students…I realized I still had one more lesson to teach…

~Once upon a time there was a 57 year old girl who wrote a book straight from her heart. She never gave up on her dream no matter how long it took.~
Contact Karen Márquez Morales at thekrayonkids!at!gmail.com

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