My teaching experience is non-traditional. My first glance into education was as a graduate student at SHSU where I served as the advisor for the National Agri-marketing team. I helped 12 students develop a marketing plan and coached them on their presentation at the National competition. While in Colorado, I worked for a local insurance agent where I was known to take ample time educating clients on their coverages and building relationships. Later, I was asked to teach high school students at the local driver's education school about insurance basics. I knew I wanted to pursue teaching when I was more excited to volunteer my Saturday mornings teaching than going to work. Education found me and I'm so thankful! So what keeps me going? Students, creativity, and coffee!

Students:

The students are the reason I get up every day. They teach me things all the time (sometimes as simple as new "lingo"). Middle School is such a developmental year, and I strive to provide a welcoming environment that makes them feel safe to learn. I love to watch their brains work and come up with creative solutions. They impress me and challenge me every day. The students are a big part of my why.

Creativity:

I am probably one of the more creative math teachers out there, and no, I do not mean my ability to draw. There are so many students who have a disconnect between math problems on paper and real-world math application. My favorite question is, "When will we ever use this?" My response is simply, "Let me show you!" The creativity I bring into the classroom is the blending of math with projects to help apply those concepts. The highest level of understanding, according the Blooms Taxonomy is "create", so I say... let them create a city out of folded paper to represent cubic centimeters, create a table with recorded times and internal temperatures of their Thanksgiving turkey to understand slope of a line, and to look at a data set of followers a celebrity has on Instagram to comprehend measures of center. Let them create and it will speak "volumes" to their understanding of a concept.

Coffee:

If not for the physical boost of energy, it's absolutely for the taste! I love the sweet coffee, strong coffee, and even just plain coffee.