I have taught since 1978 in both Christian and public schools in my five licensed areas: art, English, elementary 1-8, reading K-12, and my newest area; ESL which is clearly my absolute favorite area! I have loved teaching English learners. I recently retired but still want to advocate for these kids. I'm a fourth-generation English learner (some of my family immigrated from Southern Italy with no language skills). I understand some of the issues English learners have and I have a heart for them for life!
When teaching, I used whatever resources I could find to teach those core standards in the most interesting way that I could. I used my Smart board, Google Classroom, and often had the kids use chrome books to do research. If it meant team teaching, teaching with centers, using Power Points, small groups, whole group, paired work, one-on-one conferencing, or interactive games I did it. I was always stubborn enough to keep persevering as a teacher. I loved to do extensions to literature, especially with the Narnia series. In the past, I taught that series from first grade through fifth grades and it's all GOOD. My children have developed an enjoyment for fantasy and also come to realize that there are life-changing messages in books, too.
When I taught a homeroom at the second/third grade level, I won Ameritech grants on three occasions for multi-cultural/multi-age/cross-curriculum units for my district here in Ohio. My biggest award or should I say reward, is seeing children learn to read and actually enjoy it.
I have attended three universities to become licensed in five areas: Asbury University, The Ohio State University, and Otterbein University. I originally went to Asbury as an art education major with an English minor. While my family was young, I picked away at getting my elementary 1-8 certification from The Ohio State University. Much later after many years of teaching, I got my masters/ reading endorsement in 2008 from Otterbein University. Since I already had credits for many of the TESOL required courses list, I went on to get my ESL endorsement from The Ohio State University in 2010 (some coursework was transferred from Otterbein for which I am very grateful to Ohio State for accepting). My five licensed areas: art, English, elementary 1-8, reading K-12, and my newest area; ESL K-12 which I am extremely happy about!
I am married and have two grown sons. I love to sing in my church choir, garden, and have a small standard-sized dachshund, named Sammy. In the summer, Sammers and I love to take walks I work on my computer and try to create new and better products to put on TPT. I'm still learning the "computer language" as I like to call it. I didn't grow up with this stuff but I am learning. I've always wanted to write children's picture books and have actually sold a few pieces to magazines. One day you might see my name on a kids book! My new and beautiful store logo was made for me by Laine Sutherland.
PreK, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, Homeschool, Staff, Not Grade Specific
English Language Arts, Balanced Literacy, Creative Writing, Writing-Expository, Reading, Grammar, Spelling, Vocabulary, Specialty, Math, Applied Math, Arithmetic, Basic Operations, Geometry, Numbers, Science, Earth Sciences, Environment, Other (Science), Social Studies, Ancient History, U.S. History, World Languages, Spanish, Arts & Music, Art History, Visual Arts, Physical Education, Special Education, ESL-EFL-ELL, Health, ELA Test Prep, Other (ELA), Life Skills, Religion, Gifted and Talented, Critical Thinking, For All Subjects, Classroom Management, Economics , Character Education, Family Consumer Sciences, Word Problems, General Science, Writing, Reading Strategies, Holidays/Seasonal, Back to School, Thanksgiving, Christmas-Chanukah-Kwanzaa, Autumn, Mental Math, Speech Therapy, Winter, Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day, Black History Month, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Spring, Place Value, Tools for Common Core, For All Subjects, Summer, Informational Text, Test Preparation, Early Intervention, End of Year, Phonics, Close Reading