Welcome to my personal page. I am a public school educator with a passion for literacy. Entering my classroom on any given day, you will notice that I employ an individualized and meaningful approach to learning. Let me begin by sharing a story with you about a former student, Paul. Paul was a high achieving student, a strong test taker, a member of the Mathletes team, and a lover of all things science and dinosaurs. However, on any given day, Paul could become paralyzed by anxiety. It could be from some words exchanged at recess. Often, his anxiety occurred during independent writing time. Paul was bright, loaded with creativity, and an excellent writer. But, he was very not confident when it came to writing. Paul felt anxious when asked to use a graphic organizer or to make a plan. He felt as though he could never express his ideas in typing as quickly as he would think them. So when it came to Paul, there was always a unique personalized plan and agenda to get the writing assignment completed. 

Whenever Paul was overwhelmed and showing physical signs of distress (ie. crying, holding his head in his hands, or his face reddening), I had Paul sit in the “Sun Room” (a.k.a. A spruced up space). This space allowed Paul an opportunity to calm down and relax away from the eyes of his peers, but also kept him close so that I could check on him frequently. For 5-10 minutes he was allowed to sit, breathe, color, journal or draw. After 10 minutes (maximum) he needed to begin the class assignment. After 15-20 minutes, he was asked to rejoin the class. Paul was often able to do this independently, without coaxing. 

To ease his anxiety around writing, I always allowed Paul to handwrite his drafts. He never had to type them, even if every other student was typing. Paul was also allowed to just free write. Once he had all his ideas written, together we would reorganize his paragraphs using numbers and/or symbols to chunk similar ideas together. Paul was allowed to ignore deadlines as he felt he could NEVER get his story or ideas written well enough in the provided timeline. While Paul did not have confidence in his ability to complete the writing task assigned to the class, I knew his potential and academic ability. I knew that no matter what path Paul took, the end product would be an excellent representation of his abilities and efforts. I also knew that Paul would not need more than an extra day or two beyond the deadline of everyone else. While I do actually take deadlines in my classroom very seriously, this small extension helped ease his anxiety. With this stressor removed, Paul was able to concentrate on what he wanted to write instead of feeling debilitated by when it needed to be completed.

 I do believe it is very important to have deadlines and hold kids to them. But it is equally important to know the learning needs of your students and scaffold assignments in ways that allows them to feel confident and be successful. And, let’s be honest, I was not going to be grading 80 middle school essays within 24-48 hours of them being turned in. So an extra day or two, was no detriment to me, but meant EVERYTHING to Paul. Even though I allowed Paul to work on his own time frame and in a way that was most comfortable to him, I never changed the expectations of the end result. To me, teaching is about meeting students exactly where they are, giving them tools they need to be successful, and guiding them to improve the quality of their work. Not all students need to follow the same route, but they are all capable of reaching the finish line.  

This story of Paul is not unlike many stories I could tell about student learning in my classroom. The heart and soul of my teaching practice is humanizing relationships with children so that education can be explored and achieved. What I value as a teacher is how I can influence, inspire, and challenge my students. I care about helping my students fall in love with literature. I have very high learning expectations for my students, and they leave my classroom with a deepend background knowledge, a sense of community, lots of strategies and skills practice, and are expected to think often and deeply about what they read. When I can get a room of twelve-year-olds sitting at the edge of their seat and clapping and the end of a chapter book that, to me, is success. When I can get a room of pre-teens to beg me for one more chapter or one more page, that is also how I define success. When a story I read connects emotionally to a child, I know I am doing something right. I want to reach my students, make connections, and help them love and appreciate good stories. I want to teach them to remain curious about everything they see and read. I want my students to feel challenged and reap the benefits of hard work. I want them to know that if they are trying their absolute best, they can never fail. In my classroom, children enjoy books, enjoy learning, and enjoy each other. At the end of the day or at the end of year together, I know my students have grown and learned a lot. Most of all, I hope they remember how much I cared about them as individuals.