The Creative Classroom

I taught Literacy Enrichment, an ELA intervention elective class, to 6th-8th graders at Gonzales Middle School from Fall of 2008 to the Spring of 2013. I served as the Electives Team Leader on campus for three years until I was selected to be a Mentor Teacher for the 2012-2013 school year. In the Fall of 2013, I switched from teaching an ELA elective class to teaching 6th Grade Inclusion ELA. This allowed me the opportunity to co-teach with a phenomenal SPED teacher all day. Together we planned differentiated activities that included daily use of technology and small group instruction to meet the needs of all learners in our classroom. In addition to my regular teacher duties, I also worked as a Mentor Teacher to other teachers on our campus and served on my school Leadership Team during this school year. During the 2014-2015 school year, I was switched to the non-inclusion 6th grade ELA position. Again, I used this as an opportunity to create lessons and implement classroom instructional practices that included daily use of technology, student goal setting, and differentiated materials to meet the needs of all my students. I also continued my role as a Mentor Teacher and member of the school Leadership Team. I have also been a Junior Beta Club sponsor and the co-chairman of the GOMS Annual Multicultural Fair for the last seven years. In December of 2014, I lead a presentation at the LACUE conference entitled "Keep Calm and Nearpod On: Engaging Students and Differentiating Your Instruction". This presentation focused on using Nearpod to engage your students with interactive differentiated lessons and how to utilize the instant data features to make instructional decisions.

Hands on lessons that promote daily technology use for students and differentiated lessons to meet all students' needs. I use the work that my students have created to identify their individual needs and use that information to plan differentiated lessons that will address what each student needs to be successful. The majority of the time my classes are divided into several independent and teacher led groups.

The biggest honor I have received is being selected to be a Mentor Teacher and a member of the School Leadership Team from 2012-2015. Not only do I teach my students, but I am also in charge of helping other teachers on my campus. I have worked alongside our Master Teachers to develop long range plans for weekly professional development and provide weekly follow-up/classroom visits to assist my teachers. In addition, I have been nominated for Teacher of the Year at my school for the past four school years. I was fortunate enough to be named the 2015-2016 Teacher of the Year at Gonzales Middle School. It was truly an honor to be recognized by my colleagues.

I began my undergraduate degree at River Parish Community College where I was a member of the Ambassadors Program, a community and campus service organization. Also, I was the President for the Student Government Association at RPCC. I majored in Social Studies Education at Southeastern Louisiana University. I graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University in the Spring of 2008. I was a member of SEAS, an educational group at SLU. In addition, I was named the Top Social Studies Education Major at SLU in the Spring of 2008.

In addition to being a teacher, I am also a wife and mama to one sweet little boy and four furbabies. In my spare time, I enjoy: -reading YA Literature -making crafts for both my classroom and my home -painting inspirational quotes and quotes from my favorite literary works - and many other creative things. :) Join The Creative Classroom on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecreativeclassroom2013 Check out The Creative Classroom's Blog for Tips: http://thecreativeclassroom2013.blogspot.com/