I’m a cappuccino loving mom to a son and 3 crazy chihuahuas.

I never wanted to be a teacher. Surprising right?! Especially now that my passion is supporting other educators. 

When I started my freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh, I was a dual pre-med, pre-law student. I took chemistry, biology, and political science. I had never once thought about teaching. While I was in middle and high school, my mom was an assistant in a special education classroom. So, when I was looking for a summer job, she suggested I work as an assistant in an autism support summer school classroom. 

I’ll never forget the student who changed my life, Nolan. I still have a picture of the two of us framed all these years later. His family wanted us to work on keeping his shoes on because he would take them off in stores and restaurants. Everyday we’d put his green crocs on as we got him off the bus. And every day he would kick them off when he got in the classroom. 

The day he kept his shoes on, we had the biggest celebration, and he had the biggest smile I had ever seen. I knew in that moment I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. 

After changing my major and getting a masters in early childhood and special education, I moved to Nashville to work in the city school district. I also enrolled in a masters program geared specifically at the challenges of teaching reading in urban settings. 

And to make matters worse, I had to spend 3 hours a week in meetings with the general education teachers and almost weekly IEP meetings due to the size of my caseload. This left me about an hour a week to research and create resources and curriculum, lesson plan, write IEPs, write progress reports, etc. I spent countless hours outside of work and I still never felt like I was doing enough. To say I was overwhelmed is an understatement.

My first year in the classroom was nothing like I expected. I was so worried that no matter how hard I tried, I felt like I still wasn’t meeting the needs of all my students. I felt like I didn’t have the resources or curriculum I needed. And my admin didn’t have any money saved to buy anything for special education. My admin didn’t fully understand special education and the unique needs of the learners.

Fast forward a few years and LOTS of research, training, and time, I am now the model elementary modified curriculum classroom for my district. I deliver trainings on modified curriculum at the district level and help coach other elementary modified curriculum teachers. 

I spent so much time learning and researching and I want to save YOU that time. I want you to SKIP all the uncertainty and overwhelm I felt and get right to the good stuff: teaching ALL students with high quality modified resources that don’t waste your time.