I am currently in my eighth year teaching and my inspiration to educate remains the same - seeing the difference and the impact I can make on children every day. Each day brings something new, whether it be challenges or successes. This job is extremely rewarding, and I am truly blessed to do what I'm passionate about for a living. As an educator, you can be one of the most influential people in your students' lives. They look to you for guidance, encouragement, compassion, and strength. To this day, I still remember who my teachers were from Kindergarten to 12th grade. These educators taught me to pass on the love of learning and to create lifelong learners. I can only hope my students feel the same way. To me teaching is about making a difference in the lives of my students. When I first started this job, I knew it would be a full-time commitment and that I would encounter many challenges, but I also knew the positives would outweigh the hardships I may encounter. I always wanted a job that I was excited to get up in the morning to go to, and being a teacher has certainly met those expectations.

Over the years, I have had various opportunities to serve my school community as a teacher leader. One of my first opportunities to share my leadership skills was when our school implemented the Thinking Maps school wide initiative. As a certified trainer, I was able to model for teachers the correct use of the various maps to organize students’ thinking. I met with grade level teams and provided this professional development and provided additional support in classrooms when needed. Additionally, I served on the committee that planned and organized the Drive-In Conference at our school. This conference hosted teachers from other lab schools as well as surrounding school districts and pre-service teachers. In this role, I distributed the conference invitation and subsequent information leading up to the conference to all stakeholders and participants.

Currently, I am involved in three new leadership roles. I was recently given the responsibility of serving as the team leader for the Kindergarten team. In this role, I work with my team to make decisions about curriculum and instruction that best supports our students in our grade level. Furthermore, I have begun the journey of becoming a Wilson Fundations Facilitator. This position has given me the opportunity to coach teachers in the proper implementation of the program and allowed me to collaborate with other teacher leaders. Additionally, I have been accepted into the Inclusive Development of Educational Administrators and Leaders (IDEAL) Program at FAU which I will begin in January of 2022. In this program, I will complete various courses and internship opportunities that will better prepare me to be a school leader in the future.

For the past four years, we have embarked on a literacy journey that allowed us, as a K-5 team, to create a shift in our curriculum that has sparked a love of reading in our students and a renewed sense of purpose in teachers. While adopting the Readers and Writers Workshop Model, we participated in professional development at the Teachers College at Columbia University. Additionally, I observed expert teachers delivering instruction using this curriculum at a model school in New York City. As a team, we were able to collaborate and implement the strategies immediately in our own classrooms.