About Me

I have spent many dedicated years here at Eanes Elementary School. This is my 20th year here at EES, and I am celebrating my 25th year of teaching. Several years ago I fulfilled a life-long dream to become an art teacher after spending most of my career as a 3rd grade teacher, and I feel so blessed to have the opportunity here at the school I love so much! I have several certifications including speical education, gifted and talented and K-12 art.

I spent my childhood in England when my father flew for NATO, and later we moved to Texas to be near my precious grandparents, who were a wonderful example to me. My father was a wonderful abstract artist, and I know he would have been thrilled to see me teaching art to children today. I had some special memories growing up as a child that have greatly influenced my teaching today. My sister and my niece are both digital artists, and a few years ago my niece came to EES and showed students how she creates art for video games. While pursuing my degree from the University of Texas, I worked with children at the Brown School here in Austin, a residential treament hospital. I was a mental health worker for several years there, and decided that helping children was something very meaningful for me. I was also blessed at the same time to have my student teaching year here at Eanes Elementary....and fell in love with our school! I was nominated for student teacher of the year for UT, which is still a great honor for me. I taught special education in east Austin at Campbell Elementary for several years, and I felt that I was doing remarkable work helping children exit out of the resource class and into mainstream groups. I also had the great fortune there of writing my first educational grant for enrichment classes and programs that won some national acclaim. Later, Dr. Cory Duty asked me to come back to Eanes to teach the inclusion third grade class here. I taught inclusion for several years, and then regular third grade classes. I have valued and enjoyed the opportunities to express myself, develop many curriculum programs and take all of my zany ideas and try them out on the kids. After many years, I jumped up to 4th grade and spent that year as the Iditarod Teacher on the Trail in Alaska, showcasing and creating lesson plans for teachers around the world. I spend a month traveling the trail with mushers and dog teams as a reporter for the race in 2016. That same year I won the Apple Distinguished Educator award representing Austin after creating a digital iBook with my students about pioneer life in our district long ago. Apple now owns the rights to that iBook, and it is shared internationally still to this day. After that big year I came to the art building, and I have been here ever since. I look forward to a wonderful year!!