Growing A Teaching Home

I grew up pretending to “play teacher” to my younger brother even though he wasn’t excited to be my student at home. During high school, I volunteered for an internship with my local elementary school, where I eventually returned to teach as a certified teacher. After earning my B.A. in elementary education and my M.A. in language education, I started out as a substitute teacher and assistant teacher over 16 years ago. I loved getting to see so many classrooms and students. I spent the next year teaching fifth grade, followed by five years teaching second grade. Ready for a new challenge, I obtained my EC license and started a three year stint as an EC / Special Education teacher in K-5 and K-12. I went back to the classroom for two more years as a third grade teacher and now I’m a reading intervention specialist for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade. I’ve taught in Montessori, private, charter, title one and traditional public schools. I’ve also taught in urban and rural school settings in both very large and very small schools. I’ve had the opportunity to teach in brand new schools just opening as well as well-established schools in historic buildings that are over 100 years old!

I am always looking for ways to grow as a learner and a teacher. I seek out growth opportunities to refine my teaching practice and develop new methods and techniques to improve teaching and learning for my students. I love attending and leading teaching workshops in order to stay current on education research and topics of interest to me and my students. Improving my craft and incorporating new and effective techniques are what drive me forward. Growing a Teaching Home was created with my desire to help support teachers and parents in their teaching journey.

I am a RBC Tribute to a Teacher Recipient and a Creative Freedom Award Recipient. I have been inducted into the following honors societies: Pi Lambda Theta, Kappa Delta Pi, The Order of the Old Well and The Golden Key International Honor Society. I have presented at two teaching conferences for educators in my home state of North Carolina on classroom management and project based learning. I have been both a lead teacher and a teacher mentor.

I earned a Bachelors of Arts in Elementary Education from The University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill and Master’s of Arts in Language Education with a Reading / Literacy Endorsement from Indiana University- Bloomington. I also hold a K-12 Exceptional Children license.

I have returned to teach in my home town and had the honor of becoming colleagues with some of my former elementary school teachers. I have been married for 15 years to my college sweetheart, and we have two children.