About Mrs. Wright

Growing up, if someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the LAST thing I would've said was to be a teacher.

Both my parents were teachers - college professors, actually, and that career didn't interest me at all back then, thanks very much. 

For the first 20 years of my career, I put my English degree to use as a journalist and freelance writer. I was a reporter for newspapers in Iowa, Minnesota, Washington state and Alaska. My beats included education, arts and entertainment, food and features. I've interviewed all kinds of people - famous and noteworthy - doing all kinds of things in all kinds of places. 

And it gradually dawned on me that being a reporter was a lot like being a teacher. My job involved gathering interesting info, boiling it down, and presenting it clearly.  Its goal was to educate AND entertain. And if I wasn't entertained, then my story wasn't any good. 

In 2007, print media was on on the rocks, against the ropes - pick your metaphor. The Anchorage Daily News, where I'd been working for about three years after moving to Alaska, offered a buy-out to its employees rather than mass layoffs. And I decided I was ready to become an educator. I'd been watching my parents do it for years, and my own career involved so much of it, that going to graduate school to get my master's was a logical choice. 

I've been at Academy for a  over decade now. And my philosophy as an educator is pretty similar to back when I was a journalist:

I want to be inspired. I want to be entertained. And I want to learn something new. I HATE being bored and I HATE wasting time.

So expect to be challenged when you're in my class. Life is short and there's a lot to learn.