I began my career in the field of education seventeen years ago when I earned my Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Education with honors from the State University of New York at Fredonia. I still consider the time that I spent there some of the best preparation I’ve received for the work that I did and continue to do as a teacher. I was fortunate to have professors who understood the value of criteria-based feedback, who knew how to coach cognition, and who were truly passionate about the work that they did and the influence they knew they were having on their students. As an undergraduate student, I received the John and Eleanor Courts Award for Excellence in the Field of English Education, the Jenny Crecraft Olson Award for Academic Excellence, and I was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, an academic honor society that advocates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.
Upon graduating, I began teaching reading and writing to students in grades 5-8 at St. Edmund School in Tonawanda, New York. It was there that I first began implementing reading and writing workshops, and this work continued when I moved south again, accepting a position as a middle and high school teacher in Mayville, New York. Several years later, marriage brought me home to Buffalo again, and I found myself teaching middle school English Language Arts and remedial writing for ten years at Amherst Middle School. During this time, I developed practical expertise in cooperative learning, differentiated instruction, and co-teaching. I also developed and implemented a writing workshop for all eighth grade students, participated in a variety of action research projects, and had a variety of creative nonfiction pieces published. I was named a Christa McAuliffe Fellow and received a citation for excellence in teaching by the New York State Board of Regents.
Five years ago, I became a service provider to school districts throughout Western New York, sharing my expertise as a teacher of reading and writing with hundreds of teachers, administrators, and students. I’ve led workshops and learning institutes on curriculum design, best instructional practices, assessment types and purposes, mentoring and induction, and literacy strategies. My passion for networked learning is infused throughout my work, and each experience in the field is one in which I establish connections between those who are in need of support and those who might provide it best. I have spoken at local, state, national, and international conferences, and I’ve facilitated a variety of distance and online learning experiences as well. As a literacy coach, I strive to connect the work that I do in classrooms to the larger vision of the school districts I am serving by planning strategically, conducting heavy program evaluation, and encouraging students, teachers, and administrators to reflect and plan collaboratively with me around the findings that are captured. One of my larger purposes is to help districts identify, train, and mentor literacy coaches within their own organizations, in order to ensure self-sustainability.
In April of 2008, I founded and became the Executive Director of the WNY Young Writers’ Studio, a thriving community of writers and teachers of writing that meets year-round on the grounds of Daemen College in Amherst, New York as well as within area school districts via our residency program. Our organization is in the process of securing 501(c)(3) status, and beginning in the spring of 2010, new communities will be forming locally and in other areas of New York State. Our mission is to honor the writer in every person and to identify and support promising young people who have expressed an interest in becoming teachers of writing themselves. We are proud to provide them experiences and training that will support these dreams.
My fellowship with Communities for Learning: Leading Lasting Change enables me to gain ongoing support in defining a vision for the difference I hope to make within the field, aligning all of my work to that vision, and ensuring that my efforts are sustained over time. My expertise continues to be refined within this powerful learning community.