Introduce yourself:
I can't believe it, but this is my 30th year of teaching English! I love being able to talk about reading and writing with my students because not only are these essential skills for us to keep growing but they also can bring so much meaning to our lives.
I'm a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest, and I'm so happy to be here. My husband Mark and I moved here several years ago from Austin, Texas, where I taught for 13 years. Before that, I taught in Athens, Georgia, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Prior to my adventures in teaching, I attended Texas A&M for my BA in Journalism and then the University of New Mexico for my MA in teaching English. We have a great kid -- Madeline -- who graduated from college at the beginning of the pandemic and is living in Los Angeles now.
It’s no surprise that I love reading, but I also enjoy cooking, walking, traveling, keeping my Wordle streak going, and gazing at the woods outside my window. I like to stay very informed on current events, and I usually have several books going at a time - a novel, something education-related, a YA book, some nonfiction, maybe some poetry.
Whenever I can, I try to spend a lot of time with my dog Gus, who was by my side constantly during remote learning, and with my cat Jamie, who does what she wants at all times.
Fun Facts:
- I almost always get the Wordle in 3 or 4 tries! (But as an English teacher, anything else would be embarrassing, right?).
- I went to high school in the town near where the first atomic bomb exploded
- I have a giant dog and a tiny cat. We got them on the same day and raised them together. I was hoping for a Milo & Otis connection between them, which didn’t quite materialize even though they are pretty much buddies.
Pop Quiz:
If I were a dean of admissions this is an essay prompt that I'd want students to answer: Think about yourself at different stages of your life. Describe how your understanding of the world and of yourself has changed over time.
What do you spend too much time doing? Reading news on Twitter and watching cooking competition shows
What are three skills you've learned in the past year that you really should've had already? How to use vinegar for pretty much anything (cleaning, weeds, gnats), how to end/exit a conversation, how to give my dog a pill (peanut butter!)