Hello!  I am so excited to share your child's second-grade year with you!  Second grade is my absolute favorite grade to teach.  Your child will learn and grow so much this year - you will be amazed by the difference you will see in your child from the beginning to the end of the school year.

This will be my 22nd year as a teacher.  I have taught first, second, fourth, and fifth grades and special education. I hold certifications in Elementary Education, Special Education. English as a Second Language and Life and Earth Sciences.  I started my teaching journey at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I did my student teaching in Battle Creek, Michigan - the cereal capital of the world!  I met my husband, Jay, while at Western in 1992.  We will celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary this November.  We have been blessed with 4 amazing children;  Max, Alex, Grant, and Eden.  We also share our home with 3 obnoxious dogs; Lewis, Clark, and Stella. I will celebrate my half-century birthday this March.

I love teaching because it gives me an outlet to be creative. The children constantly challenge me to think of the world in new ways and come up with new things to ponder and explore. I love watching young readers gain confidence and fall in love with reading.  I love sharing my love of books with children.  I love watching the different ways students come up with solving math problems or science questions.  I love it all really.  Well, maybe not 100-degree recess duty, but most of it.

It is very important to me that you feel you can come to me with any thoughts or concerns about your child.  My promise to you is that I will strive every day to be the kind of teacher I pray for my own children to have.  It is of the utmost importance to me that your child feels comfortable, secure, and happy in my classroom.  If they are not,  I hope that you will communicate that to me as soon as possible.  Miscommunications can happen.  And I will make mistakes. I just hope that you will let me know so that we can work together to make this the absolute best year your child has yet! 

Things I love:

My family, my friends, being a teacher, Oak Point Elementary,  bright colors, rainbows, thunderstorms, dogs, RaceTrac coffee, country music, road trips, movies, sparkly pens, smelly markers, shopping for shoes, reading, great quotes, smiling, stickers, Christmas movies, laughing, the beach, the smell of lilacs and coconut (not together), butterflies, watching bear videos, The Office, snow, true crime shows, documentaries... I could go on forever.

Things I don't love:

Chalk, the feel of velvet (especially those red Christmas bows that seem to be everywhere), powder, 100-degree days, beets, manila paper, snakes, crickets, sandpaper, having to get gas in my car,