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As a young girl – alongside my sisters - we spent hours playing, riding horses, and exploring our surroundings - the fields and orange groves of California’s Central Valley. Each day, the school bus transported us to a small rural country school where our mother was the PTA president, and our father built backdrops and booths for school plays and carnivals. Our school was a busy happy place and I learned firsthand that schools were essentially communities. I was truly lucky; I had landed in a world where parents, teachers, and our principal smiled and those smiles said to me, “The world is an amazing place and by grasping as much knowledge as possible we can only grow smarter”.
After college, I married and began raising our two young boys. I never thought of becoming a teacher (and certainly not a principal) but I decided I needed to pursue a profession. I chose teaching because I identified with what came along with it - children, family, and community. Teaching became much more than a profession - it became my passion. I began to imagine and contemplate better ways to meet the educational needs of children. Questions and inquiry into how best to accomplish this task led me to complete advanced degrees in Curriculum and Instructional Leadership, Reading and Language Arts, and Administration.
In twenty-three years of teaching and learning there have been some unpredictable twists and turns however, I still believe, “The world is an amazing place and by grasping as much knowledge as possible we can only grow smarter.” This belief continues to sustain my passion and resolve that together we can make a difference in the lives of children. Supporting our teachers as they ignite curiosity and build greater depth of understanding in our budding scholars is a grand adventure – a journey that makes me smile.
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