About Me

I am originally from Ohio, where I graduated from Kent State University with a B.A. in English.  I have also attended East Carolina University, where I completed lateral entry classes for teaching and certification as an AIG specialist, and received a MAEd. in Instructional Technology. 

Quickly after graduating from Kent State University, I headed to the beach to be a kindergarten teacher's assitant at Newport Elementary.  The following year, and for several more years, I taught middle school ELA and AIG ELA in Onslow County.  In 2013, I moved to Craven County to be an AIG Specialist and have remained in that role, now serving H.J. McDonald and Grover C. Fields Middle Schools as the ELA AIG Specialist.

When I am not at school, I enjoy spending time with my three daughters, ages 6, 7, and 12.  We like to cook together, play at the beach, and go for boat rides.  

My Philosophy of Gifted

There are several ways that the word gifted can be defined.  The first definition that I think of is when a person is given something by someone as a sign of appreciation-- a gift or present.  Connotatively, a gift is something that is considered special and given as an honor.  Another definition of gifted that is more relevant to what we are learning is when the term is applied to a student who excels in a certain subject area.  On the surface, a gifted student is one who gets higher grades than his peers and requires a more rigorous and challenging workload in order to stay interested in his learning.  A gifted student has the cognitive skills that allow him to process information more quickly and think more abstractly than his peers.  Students can be gifted not only in different subject areas but can be gifted with different skill sets as well.  For example, one student may be very artistically talented whereas another may excel in math, just as one student may be a very visual learner, whereas another is better at kinesthetic learning. 

Whether it is a gift to someone or a gift someone has, being gifted carries a sense of being special.  The special talents of all children need to be taken into consideration in the classroom and differentiation needs to occur to highlight each child’s gift.