Seventeen years ago, I found my home inside of a classroom. In many ways, I’ve never left. Every day, I get to work with administrators, teachers, and young people inside of schools and on university campuses. Every day, I’m still learning.
Six years ago, I became a service provider to school districts throughout Western New York, sharing my expertise in the field of education 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. Over the years, 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 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 and at the Kenan Center in Lockport, New York. We work with students and teachers inside of school districts via our residency program as well. 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 work with pre-service teachers continues at Medaille College, where I’ve recently accepted a teaching position in the graduate school of education.
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.