Creative Teaching Company

I have been teaching (and loving it!) since 1997. I taught 3rd grade for 19 years and kindergarten for one year (so far!) I was an education adjunct professor for 11 years at Le Moyne college in Syracuse, New York. I taught a required methods course to pre-service teachers. My top priority was teaching my college students to use multicultural trade books to teach reading, writing and test taking skills. I have also held workshops to help teachers with test prep and to train them to use my SIMPLE system for teaching reading and writing.

I have always been a creative person, and I have been making up worksheets and activities for my students since I began student teaching in 1995. I am an "orange" personality type (google "True Colors Personality Test" or email me for info!), so I like things in my classroom to be creative and fun for my students. I am incredibly grateful to all of the students who have inspired, motivated and challenged(!) me over the years to become a better teacher.

In 2002 I was honored to receive a Human Rights award from our community's city council. Using multicultural literature to promote diversity and empathy is an important part of my third grade curriculum.

I went back to school in my 30s to get my teaching degree. I had two young children, so going to college was an interesting challenge! I have a Master's degree in Elementary Education and Reading from the State University of New York at Cortland.

In 1999, I created a story mapping graphic organizer called Story Man. Story Man was designed to help students become better readers, writers and test takers. I published a teacher resource book in 2006 titled ELA Instruction Made SIMPLE; SIMPLE Steps to Reading and Writing Success. The Story Man story map is a child friendly graphic organizer/visual scaffolding tool that allows teachers to holistically teach or review over 20 essential language arts skills AND 27 Common Core Learning Standards.