My road to teaching has been long.  It began on a hot July day in Dallas, Texas when I was born the third child of a Presbyterian minister and a teacher.  Only three years later, I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where I spent the next eighteen years of my life.  I was raised, surrounded by an affluent community, in a family that teetered financially on the edge of the haves and have nots, but until I was much older I never realized it.  Values were strong in my parents’ family. 

    I was a restless high school student with fond memories of my elementary and middle school days.  I didn’t have much use for adolescence and my drive for adulthood committed me to gather enough credits by my junior year that I graduated one year ahead of my class.  It was that or drop out, so I figured out the rules to the game and moved on.   I attempted college to please my parents, but soon realized a degree in business was not for me.  The trail I blazed made me a licensed paramedic, where I was able to apply my love for helping people.  I also found the love of a transplanted midwestern Social Worker working in the local emergency room.

    Once married, we returned to her roots in Michigan where I realized that to afford our dreams of parenthood and still have a career helping others, it was time to hang up my stethoscope and pick up the books.  I returned to college in 2000 with my own motivation, on my own dime.  I was bent on becoming a teacher without sinking my family in debt, so I attained a position with a global marketing firm while going to school year round.  Ironically over the next seven years, I worked my way into business leadership, but maintained my determination to teach.  During this time we had two children, renovated a house, finished the teaching degree, sold the house, moved to a new one, and both changed careers…and we still like each other!  I soon enrolled in graduate school, realizing that public education needs two things to reach the promise of its potential:  leadership and change.  In 2011, I earned a master degree in K-12 Education Administration and decided to take a sabbatical from the classroom to learn from other teachers about how children learn and how we instruct and structure ourselves for teaching, as a Transformational/Instructional Coach, then interim principal.  

In 2015 I toiled over the choice to apply for a permanent principal position or return to my heart as a teacher.  Given a tumultuous political environment and a keen, professional staff to serve, I took a leap of faith, interviewed and was hired as a middle school principal.  I miss having my own classroom,but with my family's support and a handful of daily prayers, I keep focus on living this dream!


5th Grade Today


   

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 Updated November 8, 2015

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