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| Education/Training |
| Experience |
| Hobbies/Travel |
| General/Fun Info Sheet |
| Photo album |
I grew up in the small town of La Crescent, MN. Actually, my family lived out of town in a nice country valley development. Most of my relatives lived right across the Mississippi River in La Crosse, WI. (and they still do!) I had one older brother, so I have had experience with teasing from an older sibling. :) My mom still lives in La Crescent, and I get back to visit my family at least once a year (at Christmas time), and sometimes more often than that. I've always been very close to my entire extended family, so it's always nice to go back for a visit with everyone!
I spent my entire K-12 career in the La Crescent/Hokah School District (Go Lancers! :)) and was involved with pretty much everything I could be, with the exception of sports. With everything else I was doing, I never had time to be on a school sports team! I was involved with the band (I played Alto Saxophone), including the concert band, the marching band/pep band, and jazz band. I also was involved with the theater department: I was Myrtle Webb in our production of Our Town, but that was my only stage role--I opted for backstage work for most of the other productions; mainly I was the prop master for a majority of the plays. I also played in the pit orchestra for two musicals. For South Pacific I was the entire cello section...on an electronic keyboard (my school didn't have an orchestra :)); for Grease, I played the piano. I was also involved with the math team (and went to state competitions all 4 years), the Knowledge Bowl team (went to state 2 times), Students against drunk driving (SADD), National Honor Society, and French Club. Outside of school I volunteered at our local hospital for about 4 years or so.
Education and Training
I knew from the time I was a freshman in high school that I wanted to be a teacher, and by the time I was a junior I had decided to go into science! I attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls for 5 years. At the end of my stay there I earned my Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education with a major emphasis on Earth Sciences education and Physical Sciences (Physics/Chemistry) education. Basically I took as many science courses as I could (including biology courses), but my main focus was on everything except biology. :)
I had a great experience at UWRF; the teacher education program was one of the top nationally ranked programs at the time I was there, and I believe it still is. I spent countless hours before student teaching in the classrooms of area science teachers making observations, working with students, and getting feedback on my own attempts at making lesson plans. When it came time to student teach, my first assignment was actually in the Caribbean! I went with a group of pre-service teachers to the small Grenadine island of Carriacou and spent 10 days working in the island's high school with the local physics teacher. Our group also helped set up a computer lab in the small school. When I returned to Wisconsin, I worked in a small school teaching Physics, Chemistry, and 9th grade Physical Science. I also spent a quarter at the middle school level, and truly realized that I am much better suited for working with high schoolers!
Since graduating from River Falls, I have spent the past 11 years continually looking for courses I can take, conferences I can attend, and workshops in which I can participate in order to improve. One of the first opportunities I grabbed was to participate (with a college friend) in Space Academy for Educators! The summer after our first year of teaching, my friend and I flew to Florida to participate in a week's worth of simulations related to astronomy, space exploration, rocketry, etc. It was a blast! (no pun intended ;)). I am fascinated with space, and have always dreamed of traveling as an astronaut, even though the chance of that happening is pretty slim! I did get an opportunity to attend a workshop for educators at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama during July of 2004. This workshop involved touring the NASA facilities there, and it prepared me for the Student Launch Initiative (SLI), which was an amazing experience that 6 of my students were granted, and I had the privilege of participating in it with them during the 2004-2005 school year. The high power rocket (the "Spartan Polaris") that was built for this program is still in my classroom, and I talk about it every year within our rocketry unit!
I have taken several credits of graduate level physics courses through the UW, and I have worked with the particle physics group there as well. I even got the opportunity to travel to a workshop at Fermi Lab back in 2001! Super cool physics is going on there! I was one of 12 teachers to participate in a course called TeachSpace at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2005, and the summer of 2008 I was one of six teachers to participate in an Earth Systems Science education workshop where I worked with other teachers to explore the science of global warming and how to bring it into my classroom.
I am excited to be in the middle of a masters program this year. I am working toward a Master's of Arts in Physics Education through the University of Virginia (a distance-learning course during the school year...I'm not going anywhere!). I believe some of the work I'll be doing for this program will help me bring physics even more alive to my students! This past summer I travelled to Charlottesville, VA, to attend a month of classes in physics and in curriculum enhancement (i.e. labwork). I worked with about 35 other physics teachers from around the world. I made some valuable friendships and I learned quite a bit in the experience--both from my professors and from my peers!
My first teaching job was in Forest Lake, MN, teaching 9th grade physical science at one of their junior high schools. Although it was a great experience and I learned a LOT that year, at the end of my first year I was "bumped" from my contract because they had a reduction in the student population, and thus had to let several teachers go. I was disappointed at first, but throughout that entire summer I sent out applications all over the place (elsewhere in MN, here in the Seattle area, New England, Chicago, etc.). I turned this disappointment into a great adventure by deciding to leave my comfort zone (Minnesota) and REALLY move. I figured if I was going to pack everything up anyway, I might as well move more than one city away. :) I ended up getting one job offer (about a week before school started!)...right here at Skyline. I've been here since the 98/99 school year. I had told myself at the time that I would give it one year--if I didn't like living so far from family, I would move back. Obviously I LOVE it out here, because I'm still here...with no intention of leaving any time soon! During my career here at Skyline, and in addition to the three physics courses, I have taught physical science, chemistry, and algebra.
I have tried to remain quite involved with Skyline outside of just teaching in the science department. I am advisor for the Physics Club (which mainly focuses on model rocketry projects and entering the Team America Rocketry Challenge). I am also currently serving on the Building Leadership Team. I still enjoy being involved with the theater (just like when I was in high school) and have played the piano for the spring musical for several productions (starting in spring of 2000 with You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, through spring 2004 with The Fantasticks, and again two springs ago as the second pianist for Seussical. Last spring I got the opportunity to be the pianist for Jesus Christ, Superstar and loved every minute of it! I look forward to playing for future musicals as well.
I am also proud to be a member of several professional organizations, including the American Association of Physics Teachers, National Science Teacher's Association, Phi Kappa Phi (an international honor society), Sigma Pi Sigma (a Physics honor society) and Kappa Delta Pi (an international education honor society). I have been to several area conventions (mostly for NSTA and the WA science teacher's association) and national conferences for AAPT in 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007. I presented a talk on model rocketry in the high school classroom at the 2007 AAPT national conference, which was here in Seattle.
I continually want to improve my teaching skills in my IB classes, as well. I have attended content-area training and internal assessment training at IB workshops in Vancouver, Toronto, and most recently in Montezuma, New Mexico. This most recent workshop experience was due to the fact that the IB Physics curriculum has changed significantly in the past year and these changes will be reflected on this coming May's IB exams.
Hobbies and Travel
As busy as teaching keeps me, I do tend to be quite busy outside of school as well. Some of my "at-home" hobbies include playing the piano, reading, crocheting, and scrapbooking my photos. I also enjoy sewing, when I have time. I also enjoy watching DVDs (I don't have cable, so all I watch are movies and TV series on DVD). Some of my favorite movies include the Star Wars series. I have been a "Star Wars" buff ever since I watched the very first one with my family at a drive-in theater. (other favorites include "It's a Wonderful Life", "Finding Nemo", "The Shawshank Redemption", and many others! Away from home, I am a member of a Lutheran church, and I work with a quilting group there on a weekly basis, and during the baseball season, I can frequently be found grading papers while I'm watching a game at Safeco Field. :)
I am also a member of the Granite Curling Club in Seattle. I have been a curler for 3 years, and thoroughly enjoy it! Every Monday evening during the curling season I find myself throwing rocks and sweeping for a few hours with my team. I also work as a curling instructor during some of the club's open houses.
I also LOVE to travel, and do so as often as I get the chance! I have traveled extensively throughout the United States, starting when I was a kid and my parents would take us on extended family vacation with our travel trailer every summer. I have visited 45 states plus Washington, DC, and of these, all but 4 have been visited multiple times! I have also traveled to 3 of the Canadian provinces and Puerto Rico (plus the island of Carriacou, as I mentioned earlier). I had the opportunity to travel to Kenya and Tanzania for 2 weeks in the summer of 2003, which was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had, and I would go back in a heartbeat if I could. In 2004 I spent 3 weeks traveling through southeastern Australia (Melbourne to Sydney, plus the Blue Mountains), and in 2006 I spent nearly a month traveling through Belgium, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and a small part of Germany. One of my most recent extended trip was a road trip through Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah with my mom last summer--we visited 9 national parks/monuments/historic sites during our 2 week trip! This past summer I got the opportunity to spend 4th of July weekend in Washington, DC, before heading to Charlottesville for the classes I took at U-VA. What an amazing city DC is! It was such a neat experience to be sitting on the Mall for the fireworks in DC!
Along with traveling goes my hobby of photography. Most of my pictures are from vacations, but I do try to take photos whenever I can, and I always attempt to make creative shots! I love making scrapbooks of my vacation photos (but I'm really far behind on that project!)
Every year on the first day of school, all of my students must fill out a "Student Info Sheet"--so I'm returning the favor. :) Here are MY answers to some of the questions I ask all of them!
Birthday: March 23 (as you may have noticed, I'm not telling the year. :))
Science Classes: the classes I got to take in high school (my small school didn't have AP or IB) were Earth Science, Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry, Advanced Chemistry, and Physics
Math Classes: The last math class I got to take in high school was Calculus
Strengths: I have a LOT of enthusiasm! I think my other strengths include patience, plus my love of my career and my passion for physics!
Favorite Sports: I am a huge baseball fan! (Go Twins!) I love to go to Mariners' games, and get a partial season package every year...but at heart I'm truly a Twins fan. Once a Minnesotan, always a Minnesotan! :) (curling is my favorite sport as a participant)
Unique talent: not that unique, but I do play the piano--I began taking lessons when I was 4 years old
Favorite Candy/snack: I love dark chocolate and caramel, and vanilla Tootsie Rolls are the BEST!
Favorite Color: Blue (green is a close second!)
Most looking forward to...: everything! From my master's classes, to teaching only IB physics this year, to working with great students and great colleagues!