Bio: This is my 23rd year of teaching! Where has the time gone? I started my career teaching second grade and then moved to third grade after two years. I spent the next nine years teaching third grade. I thought I would be there until I retired. Surprise, surprise, I was asked to move to 5th grade and MUCH to my surprise, I have found a new group of kids to love!!! Even though 5th graders are the “BIG” kids of elementary school, they often need more love than the younger kids. They are often told, “You are too old to act like that” and then they hear, “You are too young for that!” It can be very frustrating for them and I like being able to help them manage their way to middle school.

I grew up in the suburbs of Indianapolis and earned my bachelor’s degree at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. It was at Ball State that I met my husband and we were married in 1976. Over the years, we had three children; 2 girls and a boy.

After spending time in Wichita, KS; Fort Wayne, IN; New Orleans, LA;and Sterling Heights, MI as the wife of a district manager of different fast food companies, my family landed in Fayetteville, NC in 1993! My husband changed careers and I found myself getting certified for teaching in North Carolina. I earned my Master’s degree from Fayetteville State University in 2006.

I opened my TeachersPayTeachers store in the winter of 2012 with the encouragement of a colleague who also owned a store. I was teaching science at the time and I began creating science resources to help my fifth graders learn science vocabulary which I knew could help them be successful with North Carolina’s End of Grade Testing. I later became the ELA teacher and I continued to add resources to my store. The last year I was in public school, I was the Math teacher for fifth grade and again, I added resources from my classroom to my store.

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