After living in Glasgow MT for most of my life, I attended Cottey College in Nevada MO where I earned an A.A.  I went on to Mayville State University, in Mayville ND, where I earned my B.S. of Ed. in Secondary Education with a Major in English and a minor in Library Science. After teaching for a year on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation I moved to Bloomington-Normal IL.  While living there I attended the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and earned a M.S. in Library and Information Science.  In 2007 I achieved my National Board Certification in Library Media.

I currently work at Kingsley Junior High School as the IMC Specialist but have also worked in both the elementary and high school levels with Unit 5. What I like about the middle school level is the ability to co-teach and integrate information literacy skills. Two of my favorite units these past years have been the 8th grade Daniel's Story and the 6th grade Art unit integrating China and Asian Dragons. I am looking forward to starting a new unit this year on No Where to Call Home and the dust bowl. Needless to say I enjoy books and spend the time I used to grade papers reading young adult literature. Two of my favorite activities with students include the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Award and Books and Bites involving two of the local libraries. Next year I will be the Student Council advisor and am looking forward to working with the students on community service and leadership skills.

My second love is working with technology, where I am involved with both taking and teaching technology PDA's classes. Dabbling in technology on my own has allowed me to discover aspects I never would have imagined. My favorite computer programs include Publisher, I use it for everything, PhotoStory and Movie Maker. I enjoy web design and really wish I had more time to work on my web pages. This summer I am hoping to make the transfer to more interactive Web 2.0! (Better late than never). I am also taking a graduate class and working on integrating technology into my teaching more as well as creating a list of projects using technology. I really think it is time to move away from Power Point presentations that get read, brochures that are reports, and web pages that look like a page from the encyclopedia.

Professionally through MIDState Reading and Barnes and Noble I am able to facilitate a professional reading group, YA YNot. In the future I hope to find the time to attend the State Library's Synergy program and become more involved in ISLMA and ICE. Some day I would like to teach a college class in Library Science.

Outside of teaching I enjoy my family (a husband, two daughters, and two cats), reading, cooking and traveling. I have had the good fortune to take several tours through Explorica to the UK and the Alps region. My love of history and the generosity of the Freeman Foundation has made it possible to spend two weeks in China exploring culture, history, and education. In the future, I hope to travel to Japan, Italy, Greece and Australia. Any where the wind takes me works too! On a personal level I am a member of PEO and enjoy getting together with my sisters and working to help women world wide. As if I didn't have enough on my plate I just became a qualified consultant with lia sophia partly out of frustration with always loosing my consultant and partly out of wow I could so do that!