ELALinks

I have 13 years of teaching experience in urban, Title 1 schools, with native and non-native English speaking students. Over the course of my career, I have helped to increase state EOC passing scores across the board and achieved a 96% passing rate for my own students. Additionally, I have continuously helped ESL students to achieve between 5-12% growth over the school year while also increasing their English language skills.

My teaching style is a combination of a collaborative and hybrid facilitator-delgator style based on the student populations and the content of the units. The content will naturally need a facilitator style where direct instruction is necessary. After that step, I like to shift into a student-centered style in which students can take ownership of their learning and collaborate in groups, work in stations, work in pairs, or independently, and I can oversee the work and step in to help or correct as needed. When necessary, I can pause the students and we can go back a step to correct any misconceptions and then proceed again. With this model, I can also pull students into small groups for targeted instruction based on student needs.

I was selected as a TExES line item review committee member to help improve three of the teacher certification tests. I served as the campus academic leader and superintendent's campus council committee member in a previous district. I was also chosen as a judge for the regional science and engineering fair. I was selected as an instructor for a summer science bridge camp in 2015 facilitated through the Smithsonian. I was chosen to attend 2 separate science conferences, CAST and the NSTA conference. I facilitated several student field trips to universities for mulitple events. Additionally, I facilitated professional development sessions on my campus for instructional strategies and implementing new instructional software. I was also involved in implementing a campus support group for parents, teachers, and students called Adults Responding to Kids (ARK).

I earned a bachelor's degree in human development and family studies, with an emphasis in cognition, from Texas Tech University. A year after graduation, I enrolled in the graduate school for accounting and then switched to education to earn a master's degree in curriculum and instruction. I went on to earn a school counselor certification from Region 4, and a school principal certification from The University of Texas at Arlington. I am currently in the process of earning a dual cybersecurity certificate from Coursera via Google, and the compTIA+ certification exam.

I have three adult children. One is in college for accounting. One is in college for architechture. The middle child is currently working as a land surveyor. I enjoy learning, reading, creating, rescuing animals, baking, crafting, painting, and spending time with friends and family.