Ms. Divinitus

I am a eleventh year teacher in North Carolina. I have taught Kindergarten, Second Grade (looped with one class to Third Grade), Fourth grade (two years), Fifth grade and are currently teaching my second year in Seventh grade. I have experienced team teaching, and teaching all subjects. I have specialized in Language Arts and Gifted Education. This year I continue to teach Seventh Grade ELA. I am AIG certified and working on my Masters. My passion is gifted education and thus have fell in love with differentiation and differentiated instruction. I have presented at the NCAEE (North Carolina Association of Elementary Educators) state conference on differentiation and tiered assignments, as well as the NCAGT state conference, and a variety of technology conferences both district and state wide. I have also conducted a variety of sessions within the two districts I have taught in through the years. I enjoy Professional Development and try to take advantage of each opportunity I can to learn the new perspectives and research based strategies.

I truly believe that every child can learn. However, I do not believe every child learns the same, or needs the same thing to be successful in their academics. I believe in educating the whole child, and not just the tested subjects. When students leave my class, I want them to be well rounded citizens of the world, as well as, competitive 21st century lifelong learners. My classroom is ran in three tiers for almost every lesson (sometimes including projects and assessments). I use the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy, to develop and instruct rigorous guided, independent, and assessed practice. My teaching philosophy could be described as "organized chaos". To the naked eye, you may think the students are not engaged. However, as you enter and start to listen to their "personal learning communities" you see that each group is highly engaged with their ability peers. I do conduct flexible ability grouping, as I pre-assess at the beginning of each unit. To better define this philosophy, I share with you my favorite quote on equality (see below), as I feel it relates very well to differentiated instruction and ability grouping in the classroom. I believe this quote truly defines my teaching style, as it relates to my drive to have every student at "their 110% best". (This means I want to see my students push to "their personal potential." It also is a great answer to the age old student question: "Is this good enough?" I answer, "Is it your 110% best?" Thomas Jefferson said it best when he said, "There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequal people."

-A Member of Omicron Leadership Sorority -Named Who's Who of College Students in 2006 -Awarded the Young Educators Leadership Award of N.C. in 2008 -Presented at the NCAEE conference 2010, 2011, 2013 -Presented at the NCAGT conference 2011, 2013, 2017 -Nominated for the Kenan Fellows Program

Graduated from Campbell University in 2006 with a B.S. in Education Academically and Intellectually Gifted Certified in 2008

I will release you to be creatively crazy and wonderful for these students. We will do whatever it takes.-- Lorraine Monro, Author of "Nothings Impossible"