A Glimpse of Me

I have taught primary-age children for many years. Most of those years have been spent teaching children in the second grade, but I did teach third grade students for ten years and first grade for one year.

I am a co-coordinator of the Targeted Services Summer and After School Program with Mrs. Kari Carlson. I have taught summer school since 2002, I think, only taking a year off from the summer program. I enjoy working with children in grades K-6 in this program. I really like thinking up a new theme each summer and working with Kari Carlson to make the most fun, exciting, educational July program possible!

I am also a leader in our school's Q Comp (Quality Compensation) Program, which I co-authored in 2010. The school year 2017-2018 will mark my eighth year as a Peer Coach; a teacher who observes other teachers and leads a small Professional Learning Community (PLC). I am also the Coordinator of the Sebeka School Q Comp Program. This program has enabled us to have an amazing amount of professional development time outside the students' day. I enjoy the leadership roles I hold.

I grew up on a grain and livestock farm in North Dakota and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. My first four years of teaching were in a third grade classroom for Sargent Central School District in southeastern North Dakota. At that time, grades 1-6 were in the small town of Havana, North Dakota, just a mile from the South Dakota border. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in this community and teaching there, but decided after four years it was time for a move.

I accepted a teaching position at Sebeka, met my husband who was teaching at the school, and made Sebeka my home. I earned a Masters in Education (Curriculum and Instruction) from Bemidji State University in 1995. Those were the years prior to the wonderful internet and online classes, so I spent years carpooling with teachers one night a week to BSU to attend a night class.

My husband, Jim, is now retired from elementary teaching. We have two adult children, a son and a daughter, birth siblings whom we adopted from the Minnesota Waiting Children group. After 5 years of marriage, it was a slight adjustment to welcome a 4.5 and 2.5 year old into our lives within two weeks of meeting them!

Jim and I enjoy nature. We spend portions of every summer traveling throughout the United States and sometimes Canada, camping and hiking in state and National Parks. We have always traveled simply and inexpensively, just the two of us and then the four, and now two again. We pack our tent, sleeping bags, food coolers, supplies, and then plenty of books to read and journals for writing.

During the summer of 2014 we spent 3 weeks in Alaska! My husband, our trip-planner, spent about two years researching and planning a truly amazing trip which included two one-week small boat (72 passengers) inside passage cruises. The Caption stopped, even went back one time, for us to see up-close: Humpback whales bubble-net feeding (rare and only done in SE Alaska), Orca or "Killer" Whales, Stellar Sea Lions, and Seals. We saw many glaciers and kayaked in the ocean beside jellyfish, star fish, and once even near seals and a humpback whale! The last week we flew to Anchorage and drove to Denali National Park where we saw grizzly bears and moose just outside our bus window. We even saw Mt. McKinley before it "clouded up" and rained in the afternoon. Only 30% of the visitors ever see the top of the mountain, which is certainly believable when one considers all the rain. They continually reminded us on the boats that we were in a temperate rain forest. (Picture inserted was taken there)

In August 2017 we spent about two weeks hiking and tent camping in Glacier National Park. This is a beautiful place that is close to my husband Jim's heart, one of his favorite National Parks and we've seen many! We have been here a number of times, often for long periods of hiking and tent camping when we were younger.

I enjoy reading for personal and professional reasons. I also like scrap-booking, card-making, swimming, hiking, traveling, and being with family and friends.

My passion is teaching reading to children of all abilities and ages. I have taken countless classes in this area and continue to read professional journals: International Reading Association, Educational Leadership, and National Science Teacher's Association. I truly enjoy being a life-long learner!

I find joy in working with young children. It's rewarding to see their growth and their excitement when they feel successful. Their enthusiasm is contagious! Their comments are precious. I absolutely love spending my days in an elementary school!

I like the professional growth I find in teaching. Sebeka's Q-Comp Plan has brought such professional growth and collaboration! Every week all teachers and other certified staff spend 50 minutes outside the school hours meeting in learning communities. We read educational research and view high quality research-based instruction. Then we discuss and illustrate how we've implemented that research in our teaching. We also have many sessions on technology: iPad apps, Goggle docs and mail, to name just a few. We are truly life long learners!

I enjoy writing, for a variety of purposes. I write school news and sometimes a "Through My Lens" article for our weekly newspaper, "The Review Messenger." I also take or submit other pictures to go with the articles for the "Trojans' Corner," our school news in this paper. I write to seek donations for school programs and events, and co-wrote the extensive Sebeka Quality Compensation Program, Q-Comp.

On a personal level, I enjoy writing poetry, rhythmic rather than rhyming. I've had two poems published, one in an edition of "Jackpine Writer's Bloc" and one in an Anthology of area Writers by a guest author years ago. I write from a personal perspective. That's something I want to do more of someday, maybe when I retire from full time teaching.