I was born and raised in Saginaw, MI and lived there until I entered Western Michigan University in 1997. After graduating from WMU in 2002 with a B.A. (English and History Majors), I attended an APS job fair where I interviewed with Mr. MyGrant. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a teaching position open for me at the time, so I was hired by administrators at Inman Middle instead.  In July I packed my black VW (I could not see out of the rear window), and made the twelve hour journey to Atlanta. I wasn’t sure that I was going to like the busy big city life (or the suffocating summer heat), but I adjusted well and began to make myself at home while enjoying my job teaching 7th Grade Language Arts.  In 2003 circumstances beyond my control forced me to move back to Michigan for a year which was disappointing, but turned out to be one of the best things to happen to me for two reasons. First, I had the opportunity to work with high school students while teaching 11th grade civics, and I greatly enjoyed their candor about our society and their willingness to take risks…little did I know that I would be teaching at SMS, where being a risk-taker is a part of the IB Learner Profile! I liked my kids, but I missed Atlanta, so I began contacting APS principals, including Mr. MyGrant, and on May 25, 2004, Mark called me and offered me a job! So, the best thing about leaving Atlanta was returning to Atlanta!

The Past Five Years

I landed back in Atlanta on the DREAM team teaching Language Arts, Reading, and Social Studies at “old Sutton”. I bonded quickly with my teammates and my students, and I became involved with athletics, coaching softball (with Mr. Curry) and basketball. My girls’ team went to the playoffs that year, and two of my former players from that team now are starring at North Atlanta.  I felt (and still feel) lucky to become a member of the tight-knit Sutton community.

After my first year back, I found myself packing again-this time for the “Learning Village” at Tuxedo. We made it through the year. Enough about that. Oh, I was appointed Athletic Director that year, which was fabulous, but even that new title didn’t change the fact that we had no gym.

Back at “new” Sutton, the DREAM team and I settled in, got comfortable, and relished the fact that we didn’t have to teach with our coats on as we sometimes had to do in our tuxedo trailers…

With this new year comes change-new teachers, new administrators, and, for me, a new classroom, and a new job…sort of. I completed my gifted endorsement classes in June which made me eligible to teach challenge classes. Sutton needed another challenge teacher. I’m it. I am looking forward to utilizing the strategies I’ve learned in the classroom, and I am especially interested in the sixth graders-the first year of middle school is so exciting!

Whenever I tell someone that I teach seventh graders (and now sixth) they usually stare at me  with a  look of pity, and then they ask me why I appear to be so laid back and relaxed when I have such a wacky job. I generally look back at them with the same look of pity, and ask them how they deal with NOT having such a wacky job. After six years of trying to figure out why I love what I do, I have realized that the “wackiness”-the fact that each day, each student, each hour is different and unpredictable-is what I like about teaching.  Nurturing the enormous potential of the adolescent human beings I work with everyday? Well, that’s what I love.