About Me

I was born and raised in Colorado and decided this was where I wanted to raise my three children as well. After I graduated with my BA in English, I got a job as a technical writer for an tech company. I have spent the entirety of my professional career in IT. It wasn’t my plan to leave college with an English degree and go into IT, but rather an opportunity. I found a high demand for technical writers, and although I didn’t have much technology experience, I could write. I stayed in IT as I was able to learn and grow and expand my base from just technical writing to web development and graphic design. As much as I have enjoyed the world of IT and acquiring skills that have helped me with projects in my various volunteer positions, it didn’t fulfill me.

During COVID our school district, like many others, had a shortage of substitute teachers. I have always been ready to volunteer for either of my kids’ schools (preschool and elementary) so I decided that I would get my 3-year substitute license and try to fill in where I could. At first that’s all it was. Filling in and helping students stay in school by providing staffing needs. After a few months, however, I started to realize that I really enjoyed subbing. More than that, I wanted to learn more about what and how the kids in the school were learning. I joined the Local School Literacy Leadership Team to learn more about how literacy was being taught in our district and come up with a grant-funded plan to improve literacy among our underserved community. I started to learn the different ways math is being taught. I was realizing that the ways I had been taught were more memorization versus the way my kids were being taught which provided reasoning and explanation. 

That was when I realized that I wanted to be part of educating elementary school students. When I was subbing, it was an amazing feeling to watch students’ faces light up when they understand a new concept. I am eager to experience that every day.