Mind Grind Resources

I have been teaching 8th grade ELA and Spanish for 13 years in a public school in the suburbs of Chicago. I have served on multiple curriculum alignment and local assessment committees for Middle School ELA and Spanish, most recently aligning our district curriculum to the ELA Common Core Standards. I have also served as a school instructional leader, grade-level team leader, and mentor teacher. Part of my responsibilities as a member of the school instructional team is to lead faculty professional development on PLC's, Executive functioning interventions, Google Apps for Education, and more.

I believe that effective pedagogy happens when there is a balance between direct teaching, small group learning, and independent learning. As much as possible, I provide opportunities for students to show me what they have learned in an authentic way. I try to embed choice into each assignment to foster intrinsic motivation.

Yet to be added

I earned a Bachelor's of Arts in English and a minor in Spanish from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; a Masters of Arts in Teaching from National-Louis University; and a Masters of Arts in Educational Leadership from National-Louis University.

I am married to Gene Hicks (check out his TPT store at Hip Hop Fit to get excellent brain-break videos) and the mother of two lovely girls. I come from a family of educators. I have benefited from the mentorship of my mother who taught 5th and 6th grade and served as a district coordinator of GATE for 37 years. My two sisters also teach at the middle school level, math, Spanish, Social Studies, and ELA (check out their TPT stores: Common Core Carrie and Erin O'Neill for more quality products).