Before I was a technology trainer I was an ELA teacher for a very long time in my career. I loved teaching novels and engaging students in the writing process. Teaching students to engage with their own ideas about specific topics and to build connections with the larger world through writing still is one of the favorite parts of my career. I was lucky enough to have administrators that understood my love of technology, and the skills I have for writing grants to bring that technology to my classroom.

I have a distinct memory of sitting in my third-grade classroom, surrounded by bright colors and desks, learning about phonics. My teacher instructing us to sound it out and figure out the world by struggling with the sounds. It was a reading lesson, which at that point I needed more help with my spelling (still do), but other students needed it.