I have spent most of my life in Lake County, Florida, where I am happily married to my husband, who serves as the pastor of Celebration Church of Lake County. Together, we have four children whom I have homeschooled from kindergarten through graduation. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Southeastern University and possess a teaching certificate from the state of Florida, which includes endorsements in ESOL and reading, as well as the Civics Seal of Excellence. Currently, I am teaching kindergarten at a local elementary school and working as a reading tutor.
I often say that my teaching journey began at the age of seven when I taught my younger brother to read. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, just like my mother, and spent my childhood absorbing everything I could about the profession.
Since graduating from college, I have taught various grades, including pre-K, 2nd, and 4th, in private schools, as well as high school English to homeschooled students. I have also received training from the National Institute for Learning Development and worked as a Level 1 educational therapist for students with learning disabilities. After homeschooling my own children, I began my role as a kindergarten teacher in a public school in 2015.
I have over thirty years of experience teaching reading with a reading endorsement from the state of Florida. In May of 2023, I became a Reading Simplified Master. This method has transformed my approach to teaching beginning reading. It aligns with the Structured Linguistic Literacy approach, which is based on the work of Dianne McGuinness. The Reading Simplified ® program was created by Dr. Marnie Ginsberg and evolved from the Targeted Reading Intervention also developed by Dr. Ginsberg, which is recommended by the Institute of Education Sciences’ What Works Clearinghouse.
