About Me

Currently I am a high school English teacher at an alternative high school ( Bowers Academy) in the Bloomfield Hills School District. Typically I say this and many things come to mind about the types of students I work with each day, all of which are probably wrong.  I work with an amazing group of students who are each their own person  and have varying personalities, but share the common trait that they have struggled with "traditional" school.  This is what I love about my job...I get the opportunity to work in an environment where we do school differently, get to build relationships with the students I teach, and facilitate a passion for learning that may have been lost.  

When I say we do school differently that is an understatement. We take traditional schooling and turn it on its head.  To most it is hard to understand until they can experience it first hand.  We require that students take responsibility for their education by having input into the structure of their own individual day, take ownership of it through Student Inguiry Project Based Learning, and strive to make connections with us not just as their teachers,but also facilitators, mentors and partners in their education.

But I am not just a teacher, I am also a student myself.  I continually strive to expand my own wealth of knowledge and I am currently working on my second Master's from Michigan State University in the field of Educational Technology (I am however a MI Wolverine through and through ....GO BLUE!).  Using technology tools to foster a greater understanding and aide students in their learning is right in line with where I want my work with students to go.  I have plans to create a maker space for the fall of 2015 to offer studetns greater choice in classes and to develop the skills I see studetns need to be successful outside of school. It is the need to put students first when it comes to how and why I teach, that also led me to acquire endorsements not only in my teaching subjects (ELA and Social Studies), but also in the area of Special Education. Students don't fit into a neat little box and teaching the individual not the subject is my goal.

Teaching was not my first job, my undergraduate degree and life has led me down many paths that I think only enhance the educator I am today. I have been an event planner, a tourism specialist, an office manager, and worked with the general public in the service industry; and so bringing the "real" world into school is what excites me about doing the "alternaitve" work I do with my students. I know there is so much out there that life has to teach us than just the core subjects.

I am also a lover of the arts, avid book reader, urban explorer, athlete, self-proclaimed nerd, and all around life enthusiast.  While this portfolio highlights my experiences in the field of education I hope you begin to see a little of me, the whole person, in each page.