I went to elementary school in Hawaii and to MHS for the first part of my high school career. Due to some difficult times in my home life, I ended up missing almost all of my Junior year. As a Senior, I switched to New Urban (it was called The Academy at the time) to make up my credits and finish high school.
"Shortly after that I had my son, Aiden. As a teen mom, I had to balance working full time and college, so it took me ten years to get my three degrees. I earned an Associate of Arts degree at Portland Community College, a Bachelors in English with a minor in Women’s Studies at Portland State University, and returned there to earn my Masters in Education."
After school, I did a cross country road trip that lasted almost a year. When I returned to my Portland home, the price had gone up significantly and I ended up moving back to Milwaukie.
"I was substituting in the district when I landed a long term gig for an English teacher at MHS. At first it was weird for me to return to the place I had lived my darkest years around. As it turned out, it was the perfect place to do what I love. I have a similar background to many students I work with every day, and that makes it easier for me to feel connected to my community and find passion in my work."
Originally I went to school hoping to be a counselor. After taking a few literature courses, however, I realized that every life lesson can be powerfully taught through literature. Literature and creative writing give us a chance to be seen, understood, and to grow. Also, teaching students how to read and write well is giving them a tool to advocate for themselves after they leave high school behind. I feel like I’m having a lasting effect on their success.
I want to be a published YA author in five years, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be leaving MHS!
"I love teacher life and it would take a lot for me to leave it behind.What I like most about teaching is the lightbulb moments. When I see a student’s brain getting close to a revelation and then BAM! It happens. It makes them feel the pride they deserve and that always makes my day."
I have so many goals as a teacher! I come to school with the plan to teach them something new, to let them feel seen and valued, to encourage them to push themselves, and to give them a space to feel pride in their efforts. My overall goal would be to help teens enter the world as *woke* as possible. My dream job would be a photographer for National Geographic or a modern dance performer, but novelist and teacher are a close tie for third.”
"What inspired me as an artist when I was in high school it was all about getting the pain out. I would paint muddled bodies and broken faces in a healthy form of purging emotion. These days I’m not so sad (cheers to being an independent woman!) so my art tends to play with my imagination, usually combining animals, nature, and magic."
I work with the Sources of Strength program which is a hope/help/strength based suicide prevention program, I work in the Equity Task Force to help students and teachers work to make this school safer and more equitable, I co-run Freedom Readers, I run the school literary magazine, and I’m hoping to start a SLAM poetry club second semester! Hit me up if you want in! I technically have four jobs, so I keep pretty busy. I am a teacher, a server, a writer, and a working artist. If I’m not working at one of those you can catch me hiking with my pitbull, reading by the fire/in my hammock (seasonally), hanging at the beach, or slowly but surely learning to play guitar. Oh yeah, and I’m pretty obsessed with the theater and go to every play I can.