K-12

My career began in Pasadena Independent School District where I taught 9th grade English I for three years. During my time there, I also served as a Curriculum Writer, where I worked directly with district specialists and other teachers to develop curriculum materials for teachers across the district. This was my first taste of learning design beyond writing lessons for my own classroom. My career then took me to a junior high school where I taught 8th grade English for three and a half years and served as English Department Chair for two years and a New Teacher Mentor for one year. This has given me experience in teaching both high school and junior high school. My roles outside of the classroom while I was a teacher have given me experience in collaboration and leadership in education.

---

Emergency Remote Teaching

On this blog, I’ve reflected on the successes and failures surrounding my teaching career. I’ve written about the activities and assignments I’ve designed and redesigned. I’ve written about my own views and feelings relating to education and technology. This blog started as an assignment in my first masters class three years ago. I’ve been striving to continue posting here because I believe it’s important to reflect in this profession, on the big things and the little things.

It struck me pretty hard when I opened up this blog and saw that my last post was one from the first week of school, when I had the privilege of seeing Nic Stone speak. How far we’ve come since the start of the school year.

Just a few years ago, I wrote about the heartbreak of starting the school year late due to Hurricane Harvey. Now, I sit here thinking about the heartbreak of closing our school early, and the struggles and successes of moving to fully remote instruction.

May 4, 2020

---

The Outside Reading Project

One huge thing that I hear from just about every educator I know (and not only just the English teachers!) is that students need to read more! My biggest push this year has been getting students to read. In fact, I’ve already written about this back in September. I said then that “I’ll make readers out of these kids if it kills me.” My classroom library,  the many opportunities to read, and Book Talks (even if I’ve slacked off on being consistent with them) have all helped to encourage my students to read. But I still had a lot of stragglers that weren’t jumping on my bandwagon. I needed something more.

When I was a student teacher back in Ohio, I concocted a project designed to get students reading outside of class. I had a lot failures in my student teaching experiences, but the Outside Reading Project was one absolute success. I decided to resurrect that idea and breathe new life into it.

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

---

Book Talks

As the warm lazy days of summer have now come to an end, and we are now all doing the teacher stuff – lesson planning, getting to know new students, setting expectations, building relationships, and everything else a new school year brings, I find myself overwhelmingly focused on one thought for the coming year: students need to read.

In one of my summer graduate classes, I read an article titled “What Really Matters When Working with Struggling Readers” in which Richard Allington talks about the “potential power of engaging children in reading where their accuracy is high” (2013). Let me repeat that: where their ACCURACY IS HIGH. Students must read what they can read. Constantly forcing students to read something simply because of their current age or grade level is, quite frankly, silly.

September 16, 2017

---

Higher Education

CUIN 3312 Educational Technology, University of Houston

I have taught CUIN 3312 Educational Technology at the University of Houston since the fall semester of 2018, immediately after I completed my master of education. This course is required for pre-service teachers seeking a middle grades or high school teaching certification. Because the course combines pre-service teachers from all content areas, from math and science to dance and art and everything in between, this has given me experience with working beyond my content area of English.

This course is designed for pre-service teachers pursuing certification in the Bachelor of Science Teacher and Learning programs at the University of Houston, College of Education. In collaboration with EDUC3301/CUIN 3321: Introduction to Teaching, this course has an emphasis on assessment, productivity tools, and ethical issues for the effective integration of technology into school curriculum. It is designed to meet the requirements of national and state competencies, an integral part of the Teacher Education electronic portfolio.

Prior to the Fall 2023 semester, I redesigned the course for the Canvas LMS.

Semester	Course Details	Course Evaluation
Spring 2024	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 22 N = tbd	Score = tbd
	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 26 N = tbd	Score = tbd
Fall 2023	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 26 N = 17	Score = 4.8
	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 28 N = 22	Score = 4.9
Spring 2023	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 21 N = 7	Score = 4.8
Fall 2022	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 23 N = 7	Score = 4.9
Spring 2022	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 31 N = 11	Score = 4.6
Fall 2021	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 37 N = 7	Score = 4.6
Spring 2021	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Synchronous Online	Enrollment: 33 N = 8	Score = 4.8
Fall 2020	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Synchronous Online	Enrollment: 30 N = 11	Score = 4.8
Spring 2020	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 23 N = 8	Score = 4.7
Fall 2019	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 16 N = 3	Score = 4.8
Spring 2019	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 13 N = 0	Score = n/a
Fall 2018	Role: Instructor Course Modality: Hybrid	Enrollment: 21 N = 8	Score = 4.6

---