User:Crininger

Welcome
Hello, my name Charley Rininger and I am rather new to Wikipedia. My first experience contributing to Wikipedia came while student teaching. I attempted to publish ridiculously inaccurate information in order to scare my students away from relying on WIkipedia as a source of information. Of course, with in hours my vandalism was edited leaving me to reassess my position. Since then I have been reading away and observing the process behind each article. It is astounding to me the professionalism and dedication that is demonstrated by Wikipedia editors. Thank you to all of you and I hope to live up to the high standards set before me. Oh, and my sincere apologies to whomever edited my bit of vandalism; sorry for waisting your time.

Background
I am currently working to earn a masters degree in education. I have previously received undergraduate degrees in both art and history. I hope that by becoming an active editor my research skills will stay sharp and evolve along with technology. Furthermore, it is my hope to employ my knowledge of and experience with Wikipedia to help my future students to learn proper research skills, specifically the ability to critically evaluate sources of information. I believe that Wikipedia will be an invaluable tool for teaching students the ability to research in a constantly changing landscape of information.

Interests
My interests are heavily rooted in the liberal arts; as I have two undergraduate degrees neither of which being particularly helpful in procuring employment (I think that is the general requirement for a field to be designated as liberal arts). Art and History have always captured my attention. I find the people and ideas behind movements in art and history fascinating. Although, my interests are not limited to those fields. I consider myself a life-long learner which is also a buzz word and label I have associated with to help myself look better to potential employers. Though I do feel it is actually accurate because I am always trying to figure out the way things around me work: people, machines, nature, etc. That being said my interest are quite limitless, so I guess I must have waisted a bit of time writing all these other words.