We educators cannot force students to learn;
we can only provide opportunities and inspire them.
we can only provide opportunities and inspire them.
Perhaps Albert Einstein said it best:
"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."
Professional and Personal Goals
- To continue to find more innovative ways to incorporate the Common Core Standards into the language arts and/or special education program.
- To find new methods to inspire and excite students about learning.
- To better prepare students to be life-long learners by modeling and providing opportunities to use 21st century learning skills.
- To continue to utilize technology to engage and challenge students thereby providing instruction in both core curricular areas and technology.
- To create more effective opportunities to encourage collaborative and cooperative learning among students.
- To stay abreast of new developments in brain research, teaching, learning, and technology and apply them to my teaching and student learning.
- To find new methods of providing students with choices creating more student-centered learning opportunities.
- To continue to develop assignments and projects that require students to use higher level thinking skills.
- To continuously examine my teaching and student achievement in an effort to improve both.
- To relocate to the Tempe, Arizona, area and continue my passion--my work with middle school students.
Portfolio Contents
I believe that my greatest strengths as an educator are my curiosity, my ability to embrace change, and my ceaseless quest to become a better teacher. For example, after many years of teaching all core subjects to special needs students and a year of teaching middle school language arts relying primarily on a textbooks as course resources and inspired by my participation in the U of I CTER masters program, I created an online learning environment (moodle) for the seventh and eighth grade language arts students. By using this moodle, I am able to both individualize and differentiate instruction. Students are exposed to various online resources, exercises, games quizzes, and tests that appealed to various learning styles and allow for self-pacing. Since that initial change, I have extended my use of technology in the classroom by incorporating more collaborative and cooperative learning activities using forums, classroom wikis, presentation tools, and small and large group projects including an online school newspaper. Out of necessity, I have also created many resources myself (from videos to slide presentations). This site exhibits examples of this body of work.
- About Me: Professional history and development
- Student Samples: Examples of my past students' work
- Teacher Made Resources: Examples of my work
