Open Books Open Doors

My experience includes fourteen years as a highly qualified, certified elementary school reading teacher and one year as a middle-school literacy coach.

My teaching style starts with truly getting to know my students and ends with students knowing much, much more about themselves as readers, writers, and thinkers. Getting there involves identifying student strengths and deficiencies and using the former to overcome the latter. It involves careful text selection in order to maximize instructional gains. It involves regular writing in response to reading. Ultimately, it involves developing a curiosity, and in some cases, a passion for reading a broad range of texts.

I was selected as teacher of the year at Efland-Cheeks Elementary School during the 2007-2008 school year. I was nominated on multiple occasions for teacher of the year honors. I was so inspired by the learning environment at Efland-Cheeks Elementary School that I wrote the school song that captured and promoted the lively spirit of the students. Subsequently, the song was recorded and played regularly during daily announcements and for other special events.

I earned a MEd. from North Carolina State University with a Literacy emphasis. I earned a BA in Communication from The State University of New York at Oswego. I earned an AAS in Radio and Television Broadcasting from Herkimer County Community College, NY.

I am a children's book author. I write songs, play guitar, and periodically perform in public. I have been a traveling artist-in-residence at elementary schools, teaching young students to write and perform songs about books. I wrote and performed a series of songs based on The Toy Farmer, a picture book written by Andrew Pelletier for a second-grade musical.