teachingatAISRm9

I have worked 27 years at Parkway Elementary and Alliance Intermediate School in Alliance, Ohio. For the first ten years I taught every subject at the 4th grade level. During the last 17 years my focus has been 5th grade reading and math. For the last four years I have been teaching high ability math and reading classes at our new intermediate building.

I incorporate a number of different teaching styles in my classroom from short whole group lessons to small group and peer collaboration break-out sessions. A student centered classroom with me as a facilitator is at the forefront of my teaching along with utilizing as much technology as possible. I use Edmodo as our educational platform and Google Docs to teach my lessons and extend the curriculum .Having a Smartboard in the classroom and access to Smart Response clickers also adds to the learning environment.

In 2006 I was named Teacher of the Year for Alliance City Schools. I was also the recipient of a grant from Banc One and 2 different grants from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation. Recently I was named Alliance Chamber Teacher of the Month. My love for technology led me to present at various technology conferences: Stark Tech Conferences, SMART Ed Services Free -Tech Conference and the Virginia Rockhingham Technology Conference.

I graduated from Mount Union College with a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education and Spanish in 1-8 and a K-3 certificate from Walsh University. I continued my education in the graduate program at Kent State University receiving a K-12 Reading Validation Certificate and then finished my graduate degree at Walden University with a Masters of Education degree in Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment. Over the past six years I wanted to strengthen my math content area. So I attended Math Crossroads at Walsh University for a year and two summer sessions, Sum-Plus Algebra at Kent State University for a year and a summer session, and was involved in the AMES sessions at Mount Union College for two summers. I have also attended all the Everyday Math training sessions and have collaborated with Everyday Math consultants to implement our Everyday Math curriculum effectively and efficiently.

Besides technology, the other love of my life is my college sweetheart, Ed whom I have been married to for forty-five years. We are the proud parents of three grown children and grandparents of eight grandchildren. My husband and all three of my children attended elementary, middle and high school with Alliance City Schools. Our son Eddy did his undergraduate work at Wright State University where he graduated with a degree in elementary education and physics. Then he received his masters degree from Youngstown Unviversity in education administration. Eddy is living in Orlando Florida with his three children: Leah, 21, Brynn, 18 and Cade 15. Eddy is Head Dean of Students at Colonial High School and served as a football and volleyball coach at Colonial. Both of my girls, Katie and Brittany are graduates of Capital University in Columbus, Ohio where they played soccer. Katie graduated with a degree in broadcasting and communications and married Richie her college sweetheart in 2011. She is employed as a free lance broadcaster and works for FOX Soccer for Major League Soccer, FOX Soccer South, BTN for Ohio State football and basketball. Katie has been working with STO/now FOX Sports for the Cleveland Indians Baseball team and Fox Sports as a sideline reporter for Major League Soccer. She currently works for Apple TV as a side line reporter for MLS> Brittany graduated from the school of nursing at Captial and was married last fall. After working at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio as an RN for three years, and serving as a traveling nurse,Brittany pursued her masters in nursing and worked in family health care provider and in the emergency room at Akron General as a Nurse Practitioner. She is currently a Nurse Practitioner with a chiropractor and Ideal Image.