About

Always Teaching, Always Learning.

When I was in 5th grade, I decided I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. Since then, my passion for teaching guided me through the process of finding my called position in teaching. I started as a preschool teacher while I earned my B.S. Ed. in Middle Level Education - grades 4-8 Science & English/Language Arts (ELA) in Pennsylvania - from East Stroudsburg University. Then, I moved to New Jersey where I was blessed to be a part of a fantastic K-8 charter school, running their after-school program and teaching Kindergarten through grade 2 Science. The highly supportive staff sparked my interest in furthering my education, so I went off to graduate school, this time in upstate New York, to earn my M.S.Ed. in Literacy Education at Binghamton University.

While living in the Southern Tier of New York State, I found a wonderful community at a small private school where I taught grade 4 math and grades 4-6 science. The science curriculum needed an overhaul, and I took on the challenge to create my own lessons and units to meet the newly released New Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for all three grade levels. When my husband and I moved back to Pennsylvania for his career, I left my curriculum work at the private school. Unfortunately for us, we moved within 1 month of the initial COVID-19 lockdowns.

Since I left my teaching position and had not yet secured a new one, I began to think about what I could do with my time and my knowledge of education. That’s when I found Wilkes University’s Ed.D program in Educational Leadership. As I entered the curriculum and instruction pathway I found my true passion for creating and explaining curricula. At the same time, I became a private teacher to a local family whose children had large reading deficits, and wanted more instruction than their online school could offer. I used my literacy education training to determine the exact areas of need in decoding and provide a highly personalized and differentiated curriculum to the children, which resulted in their improvement of a full grade level of reading skills in only 5 months. During this time, I also stepped in as the Christian Education Committee Chairperson at my church. They did not have a set curriculum and needed something that would build up from year to year as the youngest learners advanced through the Sunday School classes. I created a 3-level, 3-year curriculum cycle that met these needs, and prepared the learners from age 3 through grade 6 to enter their confirmation class in 7th grade fully prepared in Bible literacy, a basic understanding of stories, beliefs, and denominational doctrine, and ready to experience the abstract concepts necessary to be considered full members of the church.

As my time as a private teacher came to an end, I was offered a position teaching grade 7 ELA at a cyber charter school in Pennsylvania, where I remained for 3 years. Each time I was given the opportunity to create resources or lessons, I was enthralled by the process and produced highly successful elements in ELA lessons and projects, as well as various professional development sessions for different levels and roles of teachers. At the end of my 3rd year there, I realized that my favorite part of my job was to create resources, activities, and lessons, and then to provide training for these new elements to help teachers make their classes more engaging than ever before. So now, as my journey takes me into this incredible facet of education, I am looking forward to working with coaches and curriculum designers as we build resources for teachers, explain new ideas, and inspire a new wave of teachers to transform their classrooms into the most highly engaging learning spaces they can.

I successfully defended my dissertation in December 2024, and now hold an Ed.D in Educational Leadership with a focus on curriculum and instruction. I am excited to enter the wonderful world of curriculum development and management.

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When not doing something focused on learning or teaching, you can find me playing, walking, or training my American Brittany named Argos, cooking an elaborate meal with my family, caring for a plethora of houseplants, or working on an embroidery project.