Fun Facts

My family started me traveling at an early age and by the time I was 15 I had seen all but 7 of the states of our country, I even got to go to Alaska and Hawaii! At 18 I toured Europe for six weeks, liked it so much I went back for another eight weeks in my early 30's and became a Department Of Defense Dependent Schools teacher for 18 years. I lived on the island of Crete, Greece for five years, the island of Sicily, Italy, for eight years, and in the island country of Japan for five years. I

About Me

I was born and raised in Bakersfield, California, received my Bachelor's in Liberal Studies and Master's in Education with a concentration on Curriculum and Instruction. I taught in Bakersfield for five years, finsihed my Master's work, went overseas to teach for 18 years, returned to the States, taught one year in Yuma, AZ and four years in Las Vegas, NV before retiring. I live in Sacramento now to be with family.

I believe that every child has different ways of learning. In math, I feel that too often a child is given material and the teacher doesn't have the time to work on a kinetic level to help understand concepts. I equate learning new math skills to learning to drive stick shift: first you have to feel the gears move by using the clutch, the gear shift, and the throttle. Explaining how they work doesn't always set in. But when doing the action, it works and becomes second nature. I use a great deal of manipulatives and sometimes physically moving to understand some math concepts. This is using the clutch and gears to get a feel of how math works.

When I work with a student, it is a team job. WE will get through the tough parts. I have worked with students that were as much as two grade levels below in math and brought them to grade level. . My Master's work dealt with sacramento">tutoring students and work on the modalities of learning. While I was in Las Vegas I tutored students after school. I was also working with two or three students at a time in reading fluency and vocabulary development. All my students tested a greater growth in the State mandated test than they had before.

Parent and teacher imput are one way I can be successful, but the student and I are partners