Background

=Background =

I have always known that I wanted to be a teacher. As a child my favorite game was playing school. Thanks to a math teacher who ended up being one of the most influential people for me, I decided to attend Lamar and become a science teacher. I graduated from Bridge City with Cum Laude honors. I waited five years to pursue my dream at Lamar State College Orange. After three years of studying and sleep deprivation I finally graduated Magna Cum Laude with an AS in Elementary Education in May 2000. At the time I thought it was more for me than for my five year old and two 1/2 year old daughters, but now I realize what a huge impact I have made on their future. I am proud to say that I was the first one in my immediate as well as my extended family to graduate from college. I continued on with my education and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Lamar Beaumont with a BS in Health Education in August 2002. I was very blessed to have worked as a physical education aide during my last two years at Lamar. I also was blessed with the opportunity to participate in the McNair Scholars program and complete an undergraduate research project. I always knew that this would not be the end of my higher education because I am worth it!

I began my teaching career at Port Neches-Groves High School teaching Biology to freshmen students and coaching basketball. After three years I decided to try middle school science and spent a year teaching in Barbers Hill where I got my first taste of how technology could truly enhance student success. Barbers Hill participates in the one-to-one laptop program and every single student of mine had their own laptop. After driving two hours per day for a school year, I decided to return to school for nursing. In late July I received a call from a local middle school asking me to teach 6th grade science. I lived two minutes from the school so I embraced the challenge of teaching 6th graders. WOW! I learned that 6th grade teachers are truly angels and that I wanted more challenge in the content I was teaching. That summer a friend of mine called me to return to Port Neches-Groves to coach JV soccer. I am glad to be back home in Port Neches.