About/Contact

Our goals this year include developing organization and study skills through the teaching of the curriculum. We think of literacy as more than just book reading, and we strive to create students who are not just writers but creators. It is our mission to develop students who have the reading, writing, speaking, thinking, and life skills necessary to be successful not only in high school, but also in an ever-changing, 21^stcentury world. 

We will be using a fair amount of technology in the classroom. If your child does not have regular access to a computer and the Internet, please let me know so that I can make adjustments. When advanced technology is required for an assignment, that technology will be provided during school time. It is recommended that you purchase a flashdrive for your child to transport work to and from school.

Our units this year are focused on the following topics:  

• Writing an essay 
• Suspense analysis and creation
• Nonfiction writing and researching
• English language and etymology
• Poetry
• Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew in its original verse
• WWII and the Holocaust

I am originally from the eastern side of the state, growing up in York County, PA.  I attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania where I earned my Bachelor of Science in English Education as well as my Bachelor of Arts in English.  I spent two terms studying at the University of York in York, England where I met my husband.  We tied the knot summer of 2011.  In early 2019 we welcomed our first child.  I completed my masters in English at the University of Pittsburgh in 2012, having written my thesis about digital composition theory and practice.  This is my 14th year as an 8th grade language arts teacher at PTMS.  I am currently the ELA facilitator for the middle school.  

In 2011, I started the PTMS Writing Lab, which meets during study lab to serve as a peer editing and tutoring spot for the entire middle school. The alumni of that group went on to open a similar writing lab at PTHS.  Currently, I am the vice-president of the Secondary School Writing Centers Association, a national non-profit that supports the work done in writing labs like ours.  I also co-edited a resource toolkit for directors which is titled Advocating, Building, and Collaborating: A Resource Toolkit to Sustain Secondary School Writing Centers.