My Teaching Practice

Degrees

1998 BS Secondary Education Math/Physics U of North Alabama

2005 MA Interdisciplinary Studies/Math Texas Tech

2013 MS Engineering Education U of Texas at Austin

Experience

1998-2002 Math and Science Teacher Cherokee High School

2002-2004 Developmental Math Professor South Plains College

2004-2005 Math Teacher         Stony Point 9th Grade Ctr

2005-2016 Math/Engineering/Robotics Teacher Connally High School

2007-2010 Developmental Math Professor Liberty University

2006-Present Developmental Math Professor Austin Community College

My Professional Journey

My first teaching job was at Cherokee High School. The same school I attended as a teenager. I guess it was fitting that the class I sat in for so many years feeling confused and overwhelmed with math was my first classroom as a teacher. The same room I contacted an overwhelming dislike for math became the first place I hoped to cure others that were like me. 

As any beginning teacher, I made a lot of mistakes beginning to refine my practice. I had typical struggles with student behavior and engagement. I had to understand my role as a teacher and to set the groundwork for the type of teacher I wanted to be.  Although veteran teachers can make teaching look effortless, a lot must happen before the lesson begins.

It was in my first few years of teaching I was accepted to attend space camp, which was always a dream of mine.

I was fortunate enough to get a job interview after I moved to Lubbock which changed my life. I interviewed and was offered my first job as a full-time professor at South Plains College. It was here I learned about how many career paths are influenced by poor math experiences. My classes were filled with students attending community college to follow career paths they were passionate about. For most of them, math was the obstacle holding them back from their dreams. I loved teaching in the college environment but more so helping my students achieve what they thought they could not. Success in learning math. 

In moving to Austin, I accepted a position at a local school close to where I was living at the time, John B. Connally High School. If you told me how much that wonderful school and its dedicated educators would change my life, I couldn't have believed it. In the beginning, I worked with a team teaching Algebra I to freshmen. Shortly after I began, the school then began developing learning communities. I loved leading the SEM community exposing students to opportunities in engineering, robotics, math, and other science-based career paths. I loved the idea of showing students the application of the math I spent so much time teaching them. I got so involved with the application, I left my career of teaching high school math to begin teaching robotics and engineering courses at Connally. It was during this time that with the help of industry partners and other teachers, we began Connally Robotics. A group of local professional engineers partnered with Connally and teachers to teach students about robotics and engineering. In the beginning, most of these students had no idea what an engineer actually did, much less knew one. So many people gave so much of their time and resources to build that program. A program such as this required lots of funding, which we also had to obtain from outside sources. The program blossomed from a group of 8 students and mentors with essentially no budget to several separate teams, 50+ students and  20 mentors with an annual budget of approximately $45,000 taking a team to world championships within just a few years. We had developed a world-class program and learning community in an area that desperately needed it. We were giving our students exactly what they needed to be successful in their future careers. Mentorship, experience, support, and opportunities for success.

Although I had so many others helping to build Connally Robotics, I personally was consumed with it. It was truly a labor of love, but I was reaching a breaking point. I was teaching full-time at Connally. I was working daily after school and so many weekends with the robotics team, for almost no pay by the way. During this time, I had also been teaching at ACC in the evenings for several years. Although it honestly felt as if I was losing a limb at the time, I resigned from Connally and in leading the robotics team to take over homeschooling my children and working more for ACC as a professor and tutor. It was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made, but I'm so glad I did.

This year is my 25th year teaching…17th teaching at ACC. I feel as though all that experience has led me to my current position as an SEM advisor for ACC. In my advising role, I feel as though I am combining my favorite parts of what I have spent my career doing. I am working on building a learning community, focused on SEM. I am striving to help students overcome their fear of math and help them focus on being successful in their chosen career path. I am motivating those that struggle into being successful. I am truly using all my experience to help students be as successful as possible.