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Be sure to check upcoming dates for events, activities, and athletics on the Shawnee webpage and Facebook page!
I hope this school year is as productive and successful as past ones. My goal is to keep raising students' expectations so they see they are capable of more than they think. We grow intellectually and creatively every day to stave off stagnation.
My teaching style is a mix of traditional and modern: I lecture to cover core material, but I also leverage technology for projects, assignments, and resource exploration. For students heading off to college after this year, I hope this provides a helpful glimpse into what higher education looks like and serves as a warm introduction to that environment.
I use Google Classroom for assignments and many tests. This online format ensures equal access for everyone while streamlining what I print. When we work on projects and papers, it also allows me to view your work in real time and provide instant feedback as you write.
First and foremost, I am not a conventional teacher. I didn't start out thinking, "Hey, I want to be a teacher!" In fact, when I graduated high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I kicked around the idea of joining the military for almost two years before taking the plunge and joining the U.S. Army.
Fast forward seven and a half years: I left the military and started a family—still with no mention of college yet! During this time, I worked several different jobs, from retail to manufacturing to construction, with a few others in between. The job that changed everything was working as a lumberyard delivery driver. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I was injured on my route, and that injury set the wheels in motion for me to go to college.
When I met with my advisor, I signed up for a degree in forestry—not education. I loved the outdoors and thought that was the path for me. However, during my time at SIU, the job market for forestry dried up, so I changed my major to engineering (still not education!). Halfway through that semester, I realized I had forgotten everything about calculus. Despite extra work and tutoring, I failed the class. As the semester ended, I started planning my next steps and looking for math classes to help me improve. Around that same time, through my job as an SIU employee, I had the opportunity to drive a visiting group from Brazil around to show them the region.
They were some of the kindest people I’ve ever met, and many invited me to visit Brazil. I ended up visiting not once, but three times! While there, I was fortunate enough to teach a conversational English class, and it was truly life-changing. In fact, I was still in Brazil when I called SIU to officially change my major to education.
This will be my 10th year working in a school and my 9th year teaching. I spent my first two years teaching 7th-grade social studies; I loved the energy of middle schoolers, but I wanted to get back to the high school level where I did my student teaching.
My journey to becoming an educator wasn't a straight line, but taking that crooked and gnarled path made me the person and teacher I am today.
Resources
The resources will be updated as the year progresses
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