The Teacher Next Door

I am a Highly Qualified Teacher with 15 years of teaching experience in Special, Elementary, and Upper Education. I've received 7 years of intensive International Baccalaureate training through the IBO. My variety in strategy and skill allows me to contribute my knowledge to every learner and school community as I maximize student learning through the performance standards and abroad.
My experience is in primary, middle and high school program initiatives through the public, private and charter school environments. Through standards and practices such as project study and analysis Georgia Performance Standards, IBPYP and MYP, Global Community-Based Instruction in Japan and abroad, Cross Career Learning Communities, and the Teaching of Africa through Yale University's PIER International Studies Program, I have developed a firm commitment to student-centered learning, paired with traditional and new century methods that have proven success. I am particularly interested in providing learners with the rigor that is essential in performance-based learning environments and applying the best teaching practices to meet the needs of all students.
I provide and implement a program for students w/ a range of intelligence disabilities that focus on each student's Individualized Educational Program (IEP), to enhance their academics, Daily Living Skills, Functional Academics, Communication Skills, Community -Based Instruction, Social and Leisure Skills. It is my uncompromising belief that all students can learn given a positive learning environment that develops critical thinking skills and fosters hands-on learning experiences. My philosophy constitutes a simple ideology: Children and young adults learn through discovery and application through immersion opportunities and settings. The purpose of my role as an educator is to guide the students' learning to some degree of support while students will eventually evolve and navigate themselves through self-discovery.
As I stimulate their initial interests through Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and prompt them through essential questions, their level of inquiry will grow and as knowledgeable thinkers begin to question their own explorations and findings. The early stages of growth are critical for learners to be connected to experiences that reflect difference. Children and young adults must be extended to the practice of developing and sustaining positive relationships in their immediate, local and global communities.