I have taught English for 26 years at all levels:  elementary school, middle school, dual enrollment, and college, and currently I homeschool my lovely children, who are 11 and 13 years old. I have taught mainstream, remedial, and GATE (gifted and talented) classes. 

I have bachelor's and master's degrees in English from California State Universities.

I believe that everyone can learn and that how much you learn often depends much on the amount of effort you're willing to invest. To that end, I try to encourage and motivate my students to have a can-do attitude and a growth mindset.  In part, that means that both the learner and the instructor may have to look for outside-the-box ways to approach a topic in order to make it more accessible. 

For fun, I enjoy being outdoors. I love nature, wildlife, and hiking. I also enjoy spending time at home reading and sewing. Every so often I take a class in something I've never done before just to remind myself what it feels like to be new to a topic.  This helps me feel compassion for my learners who are not yet experts in my content area, and it keeps me humble and helps me think of creative ways to reach my learners.