Hello! I'm proudly starting my 26th year of teaching. Here's a little information about me:
EDUCATION & RELATED EXPERIENCE
I attended Morehead State University and earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in English. I have a minor in psychology and certification to teach language arts/English in grades 7-12. I received my Masters of Science degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology. I've taken over 40 graduate-level courses since earning my masters degree, most of which specialize in writing. I completed a College Board Advanced Placement Summer Institute at the University of Louisville, where I completed 40 hours of content-rich training on teaching college-level writing. I've completed over 60 hours of professional training in teaching the gifted student.
In 2014, I was accepted into the Columbus Area Writing Project, which is an affiliate of the National Writing Project, a collaborative university-school staff development program to improve the teaching of writing in the nation’s classrooms.
In 2017, I was chosen to be an Ambassador for the StoryBox Project, and my students had the opportunity to work with NYT Best-selling authors on a writing project. Here is an article from the National Council of Teachers of English in which they interviewed me.
I've had the honor of presenting at the state conference for the Ohio Association for Gifted Children. In May 2011, I earned "Master Teacher Status" from the state of Ohio.
Norton Middle School - 3 years as an 8th-grade Accelerated LA teacher
Grove City High School - 12 years, the majority of the time I taught Accelerated English II, and AP Language & Composition (college-level writing course); I also served as the student literary arts magazine adviser, prom adviser, junior class adviser, and talent show director
Jackson Middle School - Starting year 11 as an 8th-grade Accelerated LA teacher
I collect signed editions of novels. My collection is 250+.
My husband and I met while teaching at GCHS.
My husband and I enjoy traveling and hope to visit all 50 states together.
I LOVE Kentucky Basketball. GO BIG BLUE!
I have a cool connection to the movie GIFTED and the movie TOGO (read below)
My husband's uncle, Tom Flynn, wrote the movie GIFTED about a child math genius. We were fortunate to attend the friends and family premiere in Hollywood in 2017. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend the film, but I'm obviously biased. However, the National Organization for Gifted Children has put its support behind the film too. Here's an article.
TOGO - by Tom Flynn, watch on Disney +
watch the trailer here
We traveled to NYC for this premiere too. I got to meet Willem Dafoe. You may know him as the Green Goblin in the Spider-Man movie. (Left pic: Tom Flynn and wife; right pic: Dafoe and I)