| "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education." ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. |
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning 
By Viceceo Learning Began teaching Secondary English Language Arts full time in 2001. Additionally, I wrote professionally for both City Newspaper and the online magazine Scary Mommy. I have worked as a department leader and the head of our after school program, Twilight, which helps students who are struggling academically. I have worked with honors students, "typical" students, and students working with learning differences and behavioral and emotional struggles.
Ensuring that my students are armed with the skills and knowledge necessary to engage as active and informed citizens of the country and world is my primary goal as an educator. While this is a broad statement, it has specific applications to the way in which I set up my classroom, write my lessons, and interact with my students. For the past twenty years, I have devoted my career to educating students of all ability levels. For each of my twenty years of teaching high school, I have requested to teach with a co-teacher in inclusive classrooms in addition to teaching “regular” level classes. As a result, I have been forced to push myself as an educator to help all of my students to achieve high expectations through the skillful use of a multitude of teaching strategies and planned activities. I sincerely believe in the use of modeling, scaffolding, and differentiation in the classroom, which requires that I assess all of my students’ abilities before planning lessons and units. It is essential that I employ a variety of activities from heterogenous groupings to lecturing to Socratic seminars to journaling and the explicit teaching of study, reading, and analytical skills. I have been repeatedly reassured, through the success of my students, that they can triumph if given a supportive and varied classroom environment which strives to address all learning styles. There are specific skills with which college freshmen must be armed in order to be successful. Notetaking, a skill applicable in both lecture and seminar style classes, is a must, which is why I have developed lessons and resources to teach listening, shorthand, the determination of important information from that which can be discarded, and styles of notes, including the Cornell method. Essay writing skills, including analytical, persuasive, and research-based essays is a must. As a result, I have developed lessons ranging from the perils or plagiarism, citation, checking reliable sources, incorporation of rhetorical strategies, and, of course, the basic skills of organization, development of a thesis statement, and support of the claim through evidence and interpretation. College students must be armed with organization skills beyond those that are used to develop an essay. They must have a system for keeping track of upcoming due dates and time management. I have made it a point to teach my senior students the skills of self-advocacy, asking for help when needed and locating necessary resources. The most important skill a college student must possess is that of determination and dedication. Having the grit to try and try again when faced with failure is a skill that must be explicitly taught. Currently, I am working to develop Social Justice curriculum focusing on the "own voices" movement which featrues writers from traditionally oppressed and silenced groups. In the Mosaics classroom, we involve students directly in creating the curriculum they hope to study. Taking my cues directly from my students is highly rewarding work. My Masters’ work focused on Media Literacy, specifically the ways in which media influences our understanding of gender expectations. Media Literacy skills are essential in our technology based world. Though some of our students may choose never to read a book again after graduation, they will always interact with media products. Arming students with the skills to critically read and actively interact with and analyze media is way to guarantee that our students will be lifelong learners. And, in the end, isn’t that we want for all of our students, for each of them to have a lifelong love of learning?
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Bachelor of Arts in English and Secondary Education, with a minor in Theater from SUNY Geneseo Masters in Secondary English Education from The University of Rochester
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6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, Higher Education, Adult Education, Homeschool, Staff
English Language Arts, Balanced Literacy, Writing-Expository, Reading, Grammar, Vocabulary, Specialty, Science, Social Studies, Civics, U.S. History, Arts & Music, Visual Arts, Graphic Arts, Music, Drama, Career and Technical Education, Health, Other (Specialty), ELA Test Prep, Other (ELA), Life Skills, Critical Thinking, Literature, Professional Development, Psychology, Study Skills, Library Skills, Criminal Justice - Law, Writing, Reading Strategies, Writing-Essays, Holidays/Seasonal, Poetry, For All Subjects, Informational Text, Close Reading, Women's History Month, Classroom Community
