Who Is Maryjean Howe?

I grew up in sunny San Diego, CA. I was fortunate to have a close knit family as well as grandparents that lived close by. My parents were both teachers so it was very easy for our family to take vacations in the summer. We spent one summer driving across country in a Volkeswagon campervan (there were 5 of us)!! Nothing, however, beat just being in San Diego with the beautiful beaches. My mother and I still go body boarding every summer (she is 72)!

While family was great, I wanted freedom, so when it was time, I moved out and went to college. I stayed in San Diego as I cannot imagine living anyplace else. I attended San Diego State and got a degree in Math and a teaching credential and a few years later went to National University to get my Masters degree in education.
Besides having a passion for education and helping other people learn, I am just crazy about dogs and have a beautiful Golden Retriever named Brandy and a crazy Boxed named Bailey. I love spending time with them as they bring me so much joy. On the weekends, when it's nice, I take them to dog beach.

I also have a group of very close friends that I have met over the years and love to spend time with them. We usually have dinner a couple of times a month and always take at least one trip to Las Vegas every year. I also try to take as many cruises as I possibly can, I have never found a better way to travel.

Although I do not have any children myself (except the hairy kind), I have 3 young nephews and love to babysit and spend time just watching them grow and change.
I now live in Oceanside, which is in the northern part of San Diego county. I have great friends, wonderful family, and two awesome dogs. I am truly blessed.

Coming from a family of teachers, it was only natural that I look in that direction for a career. Both of my parents taught elementary school, but I really enjoyed math and therefore decided to get a degree in math along with a teaching credential. Over the past 18 years, I have taught Algebra, Geometry, and basic math at a local middle school.
Teaching middle school has had its definite ups and downs. Thirteen and fourteen year olds are not the most mature individuals and do not understand the importance of the subject matter as it pertains to their success in high school and beyond.

I have learned a lot through my experience as a teacher...

1) Patience, patience, patience! To be an effective teacher, I had to master the art of being patient. People, including children, do not learn at the same rate. Understanding that is imperative to your success as an educator and their success as learners.

2) People do not learn in the same way. There are different learning styles like auditory, visual and kinesthetic. There are also different teaching styles and while I might be more comfortable with one way over another, the fact is, not everyone will be able to learn through that way. I had to master and incorporate styles that would allow everyone the chance to learn.

3) Motivation is a key factor in learning. It can sometimes be very difficult to motivate adolescents to learn something that is not very exciting. Making sure to show the relevence of the curriculum to their own lives or what they would be studying next was necessary to keep their interest.

4) The benefits of learning. While sometimes, material that is being learned is somewhat dry, it is absolutely necessary to let them know the benefits of what their learning can help them accomplish either now or in the future.

My teaching experience, and what I have learned, have carried over to other parts of my life. It has helped me understand people better, their motivations, and what I can do to help them.

Although I love teaching, I knew that there was something else out there that I needed to do. I wanted something that would allow me to help adults in the same way that I had been helping my students for all of these years.
I also did not like the restrictions that were put on me as a teacher. I was told what to teach and when to teach it, even though I felt that I was quite capable of knowing what my students needed in order to succeed. I also had to spend a lot of my time dealing with testing, administrative responsibilities, parents, and students who just did not have any interest in learning. This took away from the time I could actually work with students on an individual level.

As most people can agree, teaching is not a financially lucrative profession, and I also had dreams of being able to travel and spend more time with my family. At 42, after teaching for 18 years, I was still looking at another 23 years until retirement! And, then, after retirement, being on a fixed income for the rest of my life.

I looked at other possiblities of things I could do with my degrees and found that I was really stuck. I could start another career, but the result would end up having me start at a salary that was far less than I was making as a teacher, and I was not willing or able to take a pay cut. So I started looking at things I could do part time while I was still teaching.

I decided that the only way I was going to be able to do something where I could control my income and my success, was to start my own business.

I did try a couple of business opportunities that I found online. One that I tried, and still am a member of, is YTB (Your Travel Biz). Unfortunately, to make really good money in this program required me to go out and recruit a lot of people. I did recruit some people and I still book travel for family and friends from time to time, but it was not something that was going to even come close to the salary that I was currently used to. I enjoy the company and the people and have some friends that are involved with it and doing quite well, but in the end, it just wasn't what I saw myself doing in the future.

I continued to talk and network with people about their successes and failures with their own business and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to have in place when I was looking for another company. There is a lot of garbage out there and it took time to weed through the hype and empty promises until I finally found a company that I could see a future with.