Education Experience

I am a first generation college student. I considered learning to be my exit strategy from a difficult home life. I wanted to "make it out." Once I was out, I decided I wanted to help other kids find their ways out, so I became a teacher. I graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in Middle Grades Education. My concentrations were in Social Studies and English Language Arts.

After 6 years teaching ELA, I decided I wanted to make myself into a History specialist and enrolled in grad school at UNCW. I was hopeful this would give me deeper knowledge to share with students, and potentially be a path to working with older students. I focused my studies on modern American History. I completed my thesis research on President Nixon's somewhat secret attempts to save the space program, even though many blame him for the end of the Apollo program.

I was teaching at the local Adult High School when Covid jarred the world. I watched all my teacher friends struggle to transition to a digital-dependent world. I decided that I was ready to leave the classroom and move into the EdTech field, so I picked up a few classes at the community college. It let me test my own skills and interest, and I fell in love with the field.

I knew I needed more advanced learning than what CFCC could offer, so I am now enrolled in classes at East Carolina University. Within roughly 1.5 years I will graduate with a Masters Certificate in Computer Based Instruction, a program which combines instructional design principles with the technical aspect of online delivery via digital tools, software, and coding.

I have taught at public schools, charter schools, and at the community college. I have tutored students from 3rd grade to college level. I spent most of my teaching career in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. My last few years, however, have been at the adult learner level through Adult High School and Career Training. I have directed a variety of extracurriculars, including Student Newspaper, Student Literary Magazine, and History Bowl. I volunteer as a competitive cheerleading coach working with athletes ages 5-18. I have taken many teams to national level competitions at Disney.

I am and will always be a life-long learner. I am currently in the process of earning AWS Cloud Certifications.

Recent micro-credentials from LinkedIn Learning:
Drupal Development and Management, PHP, Scrum Management, Change Management, UX Design, Syllabus Design, Azure Essentials, Web APIs, Django, Employer Branding