:: Welcome to ryankself.com. My name, as you have most likely figured out by now, is Ryan K. Self. I live in Aurora, Colorado with my wife, my two sons, and my small, evil cat. I was born near Vancouver, British Columbia, and I grew up (mostly) in Bellingham, Washington. I went to Western Washington University and graduated in 1999 with a Bachelor’s Degree in East Asian Studies and a minor in Chinese (Mandarin). I moved to China shortly thereafter and taught English at Shanghai University for two years. I met my would-be wife there, and we came back to the US to get married in 2001. Right after that, we moved to Colorado and both began careers in public education.
:: I finished the elementary licensure program at the University of Colorado at Denver in December of 2003 and began teaching for Aurora Public Schools. At the same time, I began the Information and Learning Technologies K-12 Master’s Degree program at the University of Colorado at Denver. I graduated with my MA in August of 2005, and I completed my school library endorsement program in 2009.
:: Currently, I am the school librarian and publications teacher at Wheat Ridge Middle School, a diverse urban school with many different needs and opportunities. It’s a great job in a great school that lets me focus on my technology, literacy, and language acquisition interests.