Latin and the Classical World Thru PowerPoints

I taught 11th grade English for one year at Webster Groves High School in Missouri and then 8th - 12th grade English for three years at the University of Illinois Laboratory School in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Following a move to Houston, Texas, I taught Latin I - IV at Clear Creek High School for ten years, and Latin I - IV AP at Clear Brook High School for fourteen years. I finished my teaching career at the St. John's School, where I taught 6th, 7th and 8th grade middle school Latin for eight years. After 35 years of teaching, I formally retired seven years ago. I still do some tutoring and thoroughly enjoy creating teaching materials on the TpT website.

During my thirty-five year teaching career, my teaching style evolved from a more lecture-oriented style to one that involved PowerPoint presentations, group work, and both individual and partner mythology, culture and history enrichment projects. At the St. John's Middle School I became known as the PowerPoint Queen because my students and I created vocabulary and derivative PowerPoints for every chapter of Ecce Romani books I and II, as well as grammar, classical civilization, Roman history and mythology PowerPoints.

I was recognized as a master teacher in the Clear Creek ISD and was a runner-up in the annual Space Center Rotary Club Clear Creek ISD Outstanding Teacher of the Year competition. I was also recognized by the American Classical League as an outstanding teacher and Junior Classical League sponsor. My students at Clear Brook HS won nine city and five state JCL championships, and my students at St. John's won five city and state middle school championships. I sponsored certamen teams at both schools that won city and state championships, and that went on to compete at the national level, with two Clear Brook teams making it to the national certamen finals.

I earned a BA from Washington University with a major in English Literature and a minor in Latin, and then I went to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where I earned an MA in English Literature. I have lifetime teaching certificates in three states: Missouri, Illinois and Texas.

I come from a family of educators. My mother taught elementary school for 25 years and was a strong influence in my becoming a teacher. My father was a member of the St. Louis Board of Education for eight years. One of my cousins was the Missouri Superintendent of Education. I had aunts, siblings and cousins who were educators. My sister Nancy, my mother and I have 94 years of teaching experience among the three of us. In fact I never considered any other profession but teaching from the time I was in elementary school. I consider teaching one of the most important and honorable of professions.