My Journey to Teaching

I came to teaching a little bit later in life. After graduating from the Univeristy of Richmond double majoring in English and journalism in 1998, I was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. After serving for four years, I stayed at home with my kids Emma (18) and Miles (16) for ten years. I got my masters in teaching at Austin Peay State University in 2012 and began teaching at age 36.

I have been a 5th grade teacher for 8 years, and have taught in two states at three schools, at three different districts under 5 unique principals. I am passionate about a cross-curricular approach to teaching, and I have taught at an IB PYP school for the last three years. I have also been a Project Lead The Way Lead Teacher, bringing VEX robotics and the engineering design process to my small-town school system in Oklahoma.

I love to leverage technology in the classroom -- not just to replace tasks, but to allow for immediate feedback to students; to give students opportunities to create and choose their method of demonstrating mastery; and to provide ease of timely feedback and management for teachers! There is so much technology can help us to do. Pursuing that knowledge -- and sharing it with teachers -- is what gets me out of bed in the morning!