I've always loved school. My favorite year in school was probably third grade in Mrs. Harmelink's classroom where I was part of a third and fourth grade split classroom. Mrs. Harmelink made me feel so special for being in a classroom with fourth graders and accomplishing goals such as memorizing my math facts through my twelves. She was so proud of me, making me feel like I had just climbed Mt. Everest!
Teaching is in my blood and a passion of mine. My mom was a teacher and I have aunts and cousins that work in schools all around the country. I always loved to go to my mom's classroom and help the students in her classroom.
I went to Michigan State University to become a teacher and graduated with a degree in special education - learning disabilities and a degree in psychology. I love my Spartans especially my Spartan basketball! I went to two final four tournaments (even one where they won!) while I was at MSU. I even returned to MSU for my master's degree in literacy.
My first teaching job was at Rockford Public Schools where I taught for seven years as a special education teacher. Then I came to Belmont Elementary teaching fifth grade for four years before coming to fourth grade. I love the parents and students at Belmont Elementary. There is a real sense of community at our school where everyone takes care of everyone.
In the spring of 2015, I had the joy of welcoming two daughters into my home. They quickly have become of the loves of my life. Your students will hear all about Harper and Lucy and our adventures together!
My goal is to share my love of school and love of reading with my students. Reading is a huge passion of mine especially children's literature. Students often recommend great books for me to read and I try to return the favor by recommending books I think they will love as much as I have. Through our classroom conversations as a class and as individuals, I hope to spread my love of reading to your children. For the past two summers I was able to explore more texts through a job working for the company Booksource writing common core lesson plans for children's literature. I was even able to keep the books they sent me to review and the students will find those books in our classroom!
Animals are a love of mine as well. While I have two daughters to spoil, I also love to spoil my dog, Stella. She also loves to go up north and swim in the lake and walk in the woods. She was a therapy dog where she visited nursing homes, hospitals or libraries where reluctant readers can build their reading confidence by reading to her. We have listened to readers at the Krause Library in Rockford and Hillview Learning Center this past summer. She retired from the West Michigan Therapy Dog program this past summer.
I also love to travel. The most exciting opportunity I had to travel was to visit my nephew, Charley, in his birthplace of Kathmandu, Nepal. My sister was living there waiting for his adoption to go through, so during Christmas break, I traveled to meet him for the first time. It was amazing to see the Himalayas in real life and to see Charley's homeland!
One of my favorite subjects to teach is science. Our science curriculum is very hands-on with many experiments and discoveries. For the past two summers, I was the director for Camp Invention at the KISD. Students were building and designing different inventions from cars that travel on land, in sea and in the air to building pinball machines.
And my last love is technology. I love my Kindle for reading and my Apple products. I can't imagine my world without one of these things. I use technology in the classroom with our blog, my iPad, our Classroom Response System and much more. I hope to explore new technology in our classroom throughout the school year.
