"I am a wife and mother to three children and live in the Ada area. My experience with education came about in an indirect way. I received a degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Findlay in 2002. After graduating, I worked in children's services and developed a passion for the well-being of children. However, I realized this career would not allow me the opportunity to have a meaningful and long-lasting impact on the lives of children. I decided to go back to school and pursue my masters in early childhood education. I graduated from The Ohio State University in August 2006.

I spent the next ten years teaching at Upper Scioto Valley Schools. Most of my years at USV were spent teaching first grade. I also taught a year of second grade and spent two years teaching reading intervention. In my role, as a teacher, I provided effective home/school communication, classroom management, creative lesson plans, detailed student evaluations, and highly praised instructional delivery. In July of 2016, I decided to take time off from teaching full-time; I desired to spend more time with my young children and felt the need to assess my goals as a professional. Since August 2016, I have been subbing on an as-needed basis for Ada Schools.

During my ten years of teaching experience, I taught reading and writing on a daily basis. I provided large group and small group instruction. For reading, I used balanced literacy instruction, meaning students were taught how to read using reading strategies as well as phonics.

Writing is a year long process, from beginning to write by writing complete sentences to writing stories that include a beginning, middle, and end. Explicit instruction was used to teach this process.

My first grade team placed a lot of emphasis on handwriting. This was explicit instruction that was taught at the beginning of the year. The ability to write, form letters, and place them on the lines correctly helps with the ease of writing.

I taught spelling every day. Students" less...