ABOUT ME
Diverse Background
Skilled Practitioner
Future-Ready Focus
I began my career in the School District of Hillsborough County in Tampa, FL. During my 14 years in SDHC, I served as an English/Reading teacher, newspaper adviser, swim coach, tech coach, district curriculum trainer, and Teacher Talent Developer (not all at once!). In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, my family and I moved to Frisco, TX, and I became a Digital Learning Coach for Frisco Independent School District assigned to Independence High School.
My 15 years of experience as a teacher, instructional coach, and educational technology innovator combined with my background in journalism and multimedia production have made me an educational expert with a unique and desirable set of skills. I have delivered thousands of hours of face-to-face instruction, created thousands of educational resources, and helped hundreds of adult learners improve their professional skills in a variety of areas. I have a proven track record of success and excellence and am always up for a new problem to solve or a new challenge to tackle.
Educational Philosophy
One of the greatest joys of any instructor is to see learners succeed. Through 15 years, and after seeing thousands of students and adult learners come and go, I have found that putting a major emphasis on three foundational components is the best way to facilitate that success.
FOUNDATION #1: INTEGRITY
One of my most deeply held beliefs is that, with unwavering integrity, anyone is capable of doing anything. This is because integrity is so all-encompassing.
With integrity, learners will accept personal responsibility for their learning, seek wisdom (not just knowledge), have a decided heart, take action toward achieving goals, be honest, and never give up. Those with integrity also understand that the single most powerful thing a human being possesses is the power of choice and internal control. We choose to be positive. We choose to do the right thing when no one is looking. We choose to give everything our very best. No one chooses these things for us. External factors have no control over us because we can choose to be internally driven.
FOUNDATION #2: COLLABORATION
Human beings are social creatures meant to live in community. This is why I build my educational philosophy around establishing a positive and encouraging learning community in which participants cooperatively learn so they can individually achieve.
Learners should feel not only safe, but also encouraged to ask questions, make mistakes, and be vulnerable, because this is the realm in which all learning occurs. Learners should feel they are part of a team on which they can rely for support and guidance. At the same time, learners should be held individually accountable for equal participation in the learning process. The learning process occurs cooperatively, but the assessment process occurs individually. This is the only truly fair way to assess.
FOUNDATION #3: EFFECTIVE USE OF TECH
In a digital world, we do learners a disservice when we fail to support learning in the area of digital literacy. On the other hand, we do our learners a disservice when we use technology for the sake of using technology. The key is to use the right technology for the right purpose. This starts with having a deep understanding of learning objectives and beginning with the end in mind. The most effective use of technology occurs when instructors can seamlessly integrate technology into the educational process in a way in which learners gain a deeper understanding of a concept than they would have if technology were not used. If traditional methods are truly the best way to teach a concept, then instructors should not feel compelled to integrate a technology resource that will render a lesson less effective.