About Me

I have an MSeD and hold an active Level 1 PA K-6 elementary certificate. I recently completed a master's in Reading from Edinboro University, certification pending. I had subbed both day to day and long term, as well as completing a term of service with AmeriCorps in the 2015-2016 school year, helping to support the Title math and reading specialists.

Document cameras, Smart or Active boards, Nexus tablets or iPads, Mac or PC, whatever platform your school is using, I have used them all in the classroom. I also have experience now using online classroom platforms such as Google Classroom.

A professional dream: With funding from a corporation such as Target, Wal-Mart or McDonalds, who offer grants for teachers, or an application for a sponsored set, I would like to try implementing something in a 4th or 5th-grade class called walking classroom into my language arts block. I believe the walking component is important not only for kinesthetic learners but to get a classroom moving that might otherwise be sedentary for the day. I have done this several times with two different classes as a substitute and the students really looked forward to it; it was one of their favorite parts of the day, especially during the winter when we could not go out for recess due to extreme cold.

Science and history? I can bring both subjects to life with living history demonstrations of the French and Indian War, American Revolution, and more. If my father, a geologist, is unable to come in himself, I have access to his private collection, one of the finest in Northwestern PA. My students will not be looking at pictures in a book but the real thing, and quality specimens at that.

Another professional dream: There is a program with the Fish and Boat commission called Trout in the Classroom, which has curriculum applications for grades 3-12 in ecology, science, mathematics, social studies, language and fine arts, and physical education by raising brook trout from eggs to fingerlings, to be released into an approved waterway. Other states have similar programs. Space permitting, I will utilize such a program and integrate it into the math curriculum, and possibly the science as well.

My students say that I'm fun; I tell them the secret to having fun [or carrying on] is not to get carried away.

Something else you should know about me is that I am a trained opera singer, I build furniture in my spare time, and I enjoy the science of cooking through preserve jelly and jam and wicked tasty peach salsa.