About Me

(Whoa!  Old photo!  I can't bear to take it down!)

Who am I?

I was born and raised in the Twin Cities area and went to Hopkins Public Schools my whole life.  I headed east for college, receiving my bachelor's degree in bilingual education and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) from Boston University.  After graduation, I worked for a year at Barnes and Noble (where my personal and classroom libraries grew at an alarmingly fast rate—that employee discount is a dangerous thing) while waiting for a Peace Corps assignment.  About a year after graduation, I received an invitation to serve as an environmental volunteer in Nicaragua—I ended up living in a municipality called La Trinidad in the northern part of Nicaragua.  During my time there, I conducted environmental education classes, formed lifelong friendships, tried to influence lives for the better, and met my future husband, John, a fellow volunteer.  I have been at LILA since the school's second year, though I did leave to go to South Carolina for two years before returning to LILA.  I have taught first, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades here and also direct the winter musical and assistant direct the spring play at LILA's Upper School.  John and I have two sons, both of whom graduated from the Mandarin immersion program here at LILA's lower school, as well as an energetic Australian cattle dog mix named Hurricane.  I completed my master's degree in Education with a certificate in Gifted Education through Hamline University in the spring of 2013.  My hobbies are reading, playing Wordle, playing the piano, baking, and seeing Broadway shows.

(Another old one!  Also leaving this one up!)

Why do I teach?

During first and second grade, whenever anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I answered, "an artist."  (Coincidentally enough, first and second grade seems to be when my artistic talented peaked, too.)  For whatever reason, once I got to third grade that answer became, "a teacher" and it never changed.  I used to convince my younger brother to play school with me—to this day, he credits my wanting to play teacher with the fact that he learned how to divide several years before his peers!  As young as junior high, I was looking for experience in classrooms—I remember participating in a mentorship program in ninth grade.  I've taught in three countries (the U.S., Spain, and Nicaragua) and three states (Minnesota, Massachusetts, and South Carolina) and have been fortunate to have some absolutely amazing students and classes.  Watching the personal, social, and academic growth in my kids in just a single school year is an amazing experience—I'm always so proud of who they are and who they're becoming.  In short, teaching is something that I've always loved to do, that has always come naturally to me—and that I can't imagine not doing. 

Here's my version of the "getting to know you" homework that I send home with the kids at the beginning of the year:

Birthday: May 7

Favorite color: Purple

Favorite foods: Main course-wise, my mom's pot roast is always a definite favorite; my vote when we order out is usually for Tasty Asia.  Drink-wise, I love the Simply juices, fruit smoothies, and boba.  My favorite snack is Annie's bunnies fruit snacks, and my favorite sweet treat is the passion fruit chocolates from St. Croix Chocolates.  (If you haven't tried them, you're missing out—I could seriously eat that passion fruit curd by the gallon!)

Favorite music: Broadway show soundtracks!  My favorite musicals are Wicked and The Lion King, but coming in a close second are Aida, Rent, Les Mis, Come From Away, and many more. :)

Favorite TV or streaming show: I love the cooking shows on Netflix like Great British Bake-Off, Bake Squad, etc.

Favorite book: Where the Red Fern Grows and To Kill a Mockingbird

Favorite animal: Manatees are definitely my favorite, but I also like dogs and I think hedgehogs, sloths, and penguins are pretty adorable.

Favorite thing to do on a rainy day: Sleep in (I am really not a morning person!) and then lay around reading and/or warm up the house by baking

Favorite thing about LILA: This is my family and my home!  My earliest classes from LILA have long since graduated (I actually recently attended the wedding of one of my first graders!) and I love being part of that history, years and years of amazing students that are out there making the world a better place!

Favorite place on Earth: I enjoy traveling in general, so I have a lot of places that I hope to go someday, but not necessarily one single favorite place.  Countries/regions that are for sure on my bucket list include Tanzania, Vietnam, Peru, Eastern Europe, China, and Japan.  Within the U.S. and Canada, I'm a huge fan of the national park system—my favorite so far has been Glacier, and others that I for sure want to hit include Banff, Acadia, Crater Lake, Bryce, Zion, pretty much any national park in Hawaii or Alaska, and Voyageurs.  (Yep—I've never actually been to the one National Park that's here in Minnesota!)

Favorite thing about Minnesota: The North Shore is my happy place.  I love staying on Lake Superior and hiking around the area!