Bio
I will be starting my twenty-ninth year in the teaching field when school starts in August. I have loved building several generations of relationships with the community during this time. I started out my official teaching career in my beautiful hometown of Tracy City as an elementary and high school teacher. I also had great experiences at Pelham and Swiss in interim positions. During this ten year period, I taught every grade (K-12) with the exception of first and second. I am so grateful for the relationships built during those times. I continue to work with many of those same wonderful families and community members today at my current teaching position at Monteagle Elementary.
I have been part of the Monteagle Elementary community for the past 18 years. During that time, I have been fortunate to work with manyamazing parents, students, and community members. I have really enjoyed how the students, parents, and community work together for school and community needs.
I must say that the 2019-2020 has been the strangest year of my teaching career. I had never even heard of Zoom before this year. I also feel like an amazingschool year was cut very short. My students were teaching me so much this year. They were teaching me how to laugh until I cried, make mistakes, and continue. As educators, we tell students that mistakes are part of the learning process everyday; however, this group was holding me accountable to that philosophy, as an adult. I must say, I was really enjoying that process this year. Covid-19 robbed my students and me of so many amazing new opportunities that I was sure would have happened and was happily anticipating. During Covid-19, I was fortunate to work with and reconnect with many families on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. I want to thank them for all their patience as we navigated this new time together. I heard that they didn’t want their children to fall behind. I heard that many hadn’t done math using many of the new ways. I taught many of them and definitely knew the way I taught fractions twenty-eight years ago looked a lot differently. However, I knew they would do whatever necessary during these challenging times. They proved me right. I heard they had concerns on some days that were not related to school. I had former students (now parents), parents and guardians who were finding themselves without PPE, jobs, childcare and a variety of other things. When you build relationships these things hurt deeply. You also feel a part of celebrations and accomplishments. One of my former students (now a parent) received PPE after one of our conversations and called to tell me about it. I can’t explain how happy I was that she received her PPE. These parents/guardians will never know how much I appreciated everything they did during this time. Many of my families learned to do math in new ways with technology that many of us including myself had never used. Grateful will never begin to express how I feel at this point.
I am looking forward to continuing building on my relationships with my community during the next year. I believe that the foundation laid at the elementary and middle school deeply influences a student’s future. Building that foundation is my passion. Please contact me if you know of ways that we can all work together to make sure our children have the brightest possible future.
Education Background
Ed. S., Education/ Instructional Leadership, Tennessee Tech University
M.Ed., Education/Administration and Supervision, Middle Tennessee State University
B.S., Marketing Education, Middle Tennessee State University
Certificate,Administrative Business/ Merchandising, Middle Tennessee State University
Personal Information
Russell and I have a beautiful and talented daughter named Kelsey who currently attends school and works in Washington, D.C.
Work Experience Accomplishments and Community Involvement
Level 5 math educator
Responsible for overseeing School to Career grant ($278,000) at school level
Coordinated job fairs
Hosted safety and labor laws events with students and employers
Recruited employers for advisory councils
Attained the first articulation agreement between Motlow State Community College and Grundy County High School in the area of Marketing
Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year
Grundy County System Level Teacher of the Year
Monteagle Elementary Teacher of the Year
Golden Apple Award-WDEF
21stCentury Educator
Math Learning Leader in Marion County
Endorsements
Economics 7-12
Business Arithmetic 7-12
Business English 7-12
General Business 7-12
Salesmanship 7-12
Marketing 7-12
Elementary Grades 1-8
Sped Modified K-12
Professional Administrator PreK-12