My passion for teaching and learning runs deep.
I’ve taught everything from algebra to piano lessons.
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I’ve spent my career as a trusted teacher, mentor, and coach, and pour all that experience into my talks and workshops.
I once taught someone who couldn’t read a note of music and couldn’t identify the keys on a piano to perform a favorite classical piece.
There’s always a way to learn.
After years in the classroom with K-12 students, I started designing professional development courses for teachers and school leaders. And they kept coming to them. When people started saying, “I’ll take anything you teach,” I designed more courses. Along the way I earned a doctorate in Education Leadership from the University of Rochester where my research focus was professional development. My dissertation explored how teachers in an intensive professional development institute experienced the new learning, took that learning back to the classroom, and used it to change teaching practice.
I later became an instructional mentor/coach to new teachers, and adjunct professor teaching graduate courses in program evaluation, designing and evaluating professional development, and data visualization.
Here’s the thing: I’m also a learner.
I spend my time deepening my current knowledge, exploring new topics, and ultimately synthesizing them to figure out how they relate. I study the science of teaching and learning to ensure my talks and courses are effective and powerful. And I love nothing more than to share this joy for learning with all types of audiences.
Take a look at my speaker page to learn how my talks and workshops are created with a focus on my audiences. My planning process centers on what people are coming to learn from me and how I can provide the best possible learning environment for them through relevant content and meaningful interactions.
My talks and courses are energetic, always interactive, and filled with opportunities to make new connections and extend your learning.
IF I CAN TEACH IT, YOU’LL LEARN IT.
On a personal note . . .
I live in the Rochester, NY area with my sweet husband Larry.
We’re on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Onondawaga (aka Seneca) and the Haudenosaunee, and Rochester has been home to Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and Eastman Kodak. We love it here and spend loads of time with our families, though we also love the travel that my work brings.
I especially love New England, hiking, photography, music, cooking, really pithy quotes, and watching my favorite movies over and over and over.
A staunch advocate of the Oxford comma, I’m also fascinated by 12 Metre Yachts and Mt. Everest, though I have no ambition to sail or climb. Go figure…
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