About

Hi!  Welcome to my blog space.  I am an English teacher educator at Governors State University, a small regional institution in the South Suburbs of Chicago.  My previous experience includes ten years teaching 8th grade language arts, one year teaching juniors and seniors, and two years instructing graduate courses in writing during my doctoral coursework.  My day-to-day consists of planning and teaching secondary English methods and children’s and YA literature.

As a doctoral student and now in my early years as an assistant professor, I am interested in teacher professional development in writing, particularly teacher leadership within the National Writing Project.  As a leadership team member in the Illinois Writing Project, I have been afforded incredible opportunities to experience professional discussions and events with writing at the center.  The joy of these encounters fills me professionally and propels my work within the university and with our partner district schools.

My current research focuses on the potential that mentorship has for elevating the teaching profession for both pre-service teacher candidates and mentor teachers who I see as teacher leaders.  I am also pursuing research questions around the connections that can be made between technology and culturally-responsive teaching practices in pre-service teacher preparation and inservice teacher development.

My blog posts typically reflect on my planning, investigation, implementation, and effects of teaching practices in my methods classroom, especially now that it is located within a district high school.  As I have meaningful conversations with district personnel, university professors, and other stakeholders in teacher education, I will be seeking your insights and experiences.  Share with me as we continue this teacher education journey.