Blending my loves

My Story

I am a teacher. My parents are both teachers. My uncles, cousins, and even my husband – all teachers! You never ever stop being a teacher even if you leave the classroom. It’s hardwired in your brain and ingrained in your soul. When we had our children, I realized how deeply I wanted to teach them, be with them, and nurture their childhood in all the ways I had read, researched, and practiced.

I started my career in Oregon working with elementary students at a low-income, high-needs school. All the students with Autism in the district were bused to our school. We were well-resourced to manage this, but it made for a few hectic and crazy days. This is where I was first exposed to the Responsive Classroom framework, and where I learned much about Sensory Disorders and ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Although I loved the school, my teaching salary was such that I couldn’t afford my medical insurance, so I knew I would have to leave–and I wanted to go on an adventure.

My adventure took me to London where I worked at the American School in London, a highly affluent, diverse, and driven school. I learned about Reggio and witnessed a more profound value placed on the arts than I had ever seen before. ASL also had the funds to support some incredible professional development opportunities including bringing Professor Mitra from Standard University to campus, running seminars by Harvard’s Project Zero, and sending me to an ECIS Conference where I met my husband!

From London, my not then-husband and I took the leap of faith and moved to Vietnam together to work at the United Nations International School in Hanoi. UNIS is an International Baccalaureate school where I jumped into Inquiry-Based Learning. My role as a teacher leader brought me into the fold in more disciplinary situations, and I expanded my skillset to include practices with Restorative Justice and Positive Behavior Intervention Systems. As the head of the 6th grade AND knowing about 6th graders’ developing executive functioning systems, I became well-versed in reward systems and check-out sheets!

Wanting to start a family, we sought the clean mountain air of Starnberg, Germany and Munich International School. I spent a few months working and learning at MIS. Soon after we arrived, I was pregnant. Because of German work laws, I had to be off campus anytime someone on campus was sick. I was teaching a PreK PE at the time, and forbidden from coming onto campus A LOT that year! Instead, I studied German! Ich kann ein bisschen Deutsch sprechen!

Changes in jobs and a desire to be closer to family landed us back in the US in 2019. It has been a readjustment! We were eternally grateful to be here during the pandemic–we even moved in with my parents to share our bubbles! As our kids outgrew the baby phase, I dove into early learning and childhood development resources including Behavioral Schema and Stages of Play. It is my desire to share snippets of my learning journey with you that is the crux of this website.