I am a third generation educator, so teaching is imprinted in my DNA and I can’t imagine doing anything else. This is the start of my sixteenth year of teaching, most of which has been teaching eighth grade social studies at New Albany. The first four years of my career consisted of teaching social studies and language arts to seventh and eighth graders at St. Joseph Montessori School in Columbus. Eighth graders are my absolute favorite because they are not too cool for me yet and are starting to become more aware of the world around them. And most of them think my jokes are funny or have enough sense to pretend to. Despite numerous years of teaching, each year is an exciting fresh start; how lucky we are to have a do over every year- an opportunity to learn from new students and improve our craft.

I started my education in Maumee, Ohio and moved on to graduate from The Ohio State University with a BA in American History. Next, I earned a Master’s in Education with a focus on Curriculum from Ashland University. And since one graduate degree was not enough, I earned a second Master’s in Education with a focus Educational Leadership from the University of Cincinnati. I was awarded a fellowship to the Teacher Institute at Colonial Williamsburg in 2012. And in 2016, I was awarded a fellowship to the George Washington Teacher Institute at Mount Vernon. Both of these experiences provided me with a plethora of content and lesson ideas to add to my classroom. Lastly, I have served as team leader, SLC leader and, currently, social studies department chair.

Outside of the classroom, I am a mom and a wife. I have two kids- Nora is 8 and Liam is 11. I am an avid reader, enjoy going on random adventures with my family, and love hiking and kayaking. I also like to quilt, cross-stitch, sew and am highly fluent in sarcasm. And my final history nerd fun fact is I am in the process of joining the Daughters of the American Revolution because I have three ancestors who fought in the American Revolution.