About

I am a lifelong learner, always looking for the next challenge. I have taught all ages a variety of subjects, and find that I simply love teaching best. I am interested in improving teaching practices, using technology in teaching and learning along the way.

In a jewelry class, I had a project with the requirement to create something that represented ourselves – a self-portrait. I had recently left my college position to help open a new charter school. I have fought the cliché symbols and images of teaching, feeling that they did not represent me. (I have this constant desire to be unique – whatever that means.) This semester had brought with it a realization that no matter what I did, what position I held or how much I was being paid, I was and always will be a teacher.

On the apple background, there is an embossed outline of my profile, which is difficult to see in person, let alone in the scanned image above. The flower, or star, is an actual outline of the cross section of an apple. An apple has five sections of seeds, with two seeds in each section. You will see in each section one “seed” representing one of my former students and a seed in the background – hopefully my future students. As I thought about the students I had the privilege of teaching, three of the four represented here are from my first teaching gig. Here are their stories, starting with the seed at about 1 o’clock and moving clockwise…

The outline in blue is my marine. Of all my students, he made the biggest impact on me. I can still remember the feeling when he stopped by my classroom in his marine dress blues. He was thanking me, but it was I that learned one of my most important lessons about teaching from him. Three years earlier, he sat in a chair at the back of my classroom. I do not recall what he had done to make me ask him to stay after class, but it wasn’t good. He sat there in a shirt, a tie – dressed up for a spiritual morningside he had attended earlier. But instead of yelling at him, I paused and asked him what he wanted to do with his life. This was French class, not math, Science or English. Most of my students were college bound, or at least thought they were. What followed was the struggles of school, lack of sleep, a family coming apart and this young man trying desperately to hold it all together. French did not matter anymore, nor did his behavior in class. I can honestly say that I love my students, thanks to this young man. I teach people first. The subject is secondary.

The orange squiggle… Who would have ever thought you would need to tell a 16-year-old to not color the carpet with his crayons? He tried my patience day after day. Pushed me to my limits. The one student I ever swore at. Not my best moment – I don’t even swear. I tried to call his mom. She refused to come in to talk to any teacher or administrator. Towards the end of the school year, there was an article in the local newspaper. They had caught the group that had been stealing computers from the schools. This student’s brother was in the lot. I had him for two years. After his second year, I left the school and sometimes wondered what became of him. It was several years later when I received an email… He had pulled his life together, became active in his church and had just been called to serve a mission – French speaking.

The next “seed” represents a young woman’s art project. I didn’t teach art, but the school had a focus on art and it was incorporated and encouraged throughout the curriculum. Her self portrait was an outline of her leg – yes, a leg covered with all these tiny broken pieces of mirror. She was in my advisory group. I met with her each morning along with the rest of my advisory group. I do not know if there is anything I did, but I did get to watch her grow and change. She did not want to do a self-portrait. The mirrors were much like her own sense of self – tiny, broken pieces. However, as she worked through this project, I watched her grow and change and emerge the beautiful butterfly she truly was. I have been able to watch so many students grow, change and become. I feel it is a privilege to watch and sometimes be a part of that process.

The little black square represents a missionary’s name tag. I had several students from my French teaching gig email me years later to let me know they were serving missions in French-speaking countries. I love French, but during my first year of teaching, I realized that very few, if any, of my students would ever actually use the French. I came to what I call my implicit curriculum – time management, organization, moral conduct – things that can be taught regardless of the subject of the class. But there were a few that went on to serve and use the French, and I loved hearing from each one.

My last green seed represents those whose futures I don’t know. I am an optimist when it comes to my students. I believe in them. I believe in the ability to pull ourselves out of predicaments and overcome the obstacles that are placed before us.

The center of my “flower” is the earth systems model. During one of my teaching gigs, Edward T. Clark, Jr. in the context of an integrated curriculum, taught this systems model to me. I taught this model in three different schools. This model became central in the curriculum and is still influencing the way I teach, think, and learn. (See Ecology and Systems – Exploring Personal Learning Ecology)

I am a teacher. I love teaching and will always be teaching.