I have taught for 20 years, 13 of which were in the inner city with at-risk elementary-students. I am married to the love of her life and lives with her husband, 2 children and 2 cats. Part of the time, her two god-children live there also. My daughter has been diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder <RAD> and we are currently going through LOTS of new therapy to try to help Angelyn learn how to love herself and us. If you want to learn more about RAD, go to attachment.org or pathwayforhealing.org. You are bound to have RAD kids in your school.
I have three degrees: B.S. from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in Multi-Cultural Education K-4 with a certification in K-8, a M.S. in Education K-12 from Tusculum College, and finally, an Ed.S. degree in Education: Administration and Supervision from Tennessee Technological University.
I have always been interested in curriculum and development and have worked in my school district to promote the use of standards and helped with developing curriculum maps through backwards design. I have been the lead literacy teacher in most of my schools but recently gave that up to focus on my family, therapy for my daughter, and curriculum development/blogging.
In 2009, I began developing lesson plans for teammates which focused on balanced literacy and 6 Trait Writing. I expanded this by sharing these lesson plans with friends and finally, on Teachers Pay Teachers. In 2011, I was finally able to begin the Best Practices 4 Teaching blog which allowed her to touch base with teachers across the United States, Canada, and Australia.
