I am a 4th generation educator so teaching is in my blood. I grew up around education. My mom was a high school English teacher and I spent lots of time as a little girl in her classroom, helped her grade papers and even served as the mascot for the drill team she advised. She also served as a counselor, assistant principal and a principal before she retired after 44 years.
After spending time in the banking and travel industries, I decided to get my teaching credential too. My choice was social science because of my love of history. I earned my credential in 2000 and entered the working world. I spent two years at the middle school level. Then I moved to the high school level where I have spent the last 10 years.
I currently teach US History and was recognized as the 2012 High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year by the California Council for the Social Studies. For the past two years, I participated in a Teaching American History grant along with 120+ other teachers. We spent lots of time learning literacy and technology strategies, hearing from scholars and visiting local historic sites. During my summers, I participate in other learning seminars from organizations such as National Endowment for the Humanities, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Foundation for Teaching Economics.
My frustrations with education reformers, the misinformation that is being fed to the public, the California budget crisis and the layoff process are why I decided to start this blog. I hope to share my ideas for whats really wrong with education and how to fix it, explain why it is imperative that we stop cutting funds to education and lessons I have learned from being a teacher.
