Welcome
This portfolio is divided into four sections to share information about my skills and experiences working with international school students in grades 3-12 as a
- Library Media Specialist
- Information Literacy & Communications Instructor
- Curriculum Developer and PD Workshop Presenter
- Gifted and Talented Program Coordinator and Teacher
- Social Studies Teacher
- Partner for Technology Skills Development
One portion provides links to download my CV, published articles and other documents. Another shares examples of my work with students, teachers and administrators. A list of technology skills is linked, and a profile is presented below. Thanks so much for taking a look.
My partner in teaching, learning and in life is David Carpenter who is an instructional technologist, social studies and humanities teacher with adminstrative, counseling and curriculum development experience. (He loves coaching, too.) You can contact us via the link at the bottom of this home page.
Snapshot: What I Bring to a School
Personal Style and Commitment:
- Described by colleagues and administrators as energetic, a passionate educator, a productive collaborator, approachable, responsible and responsive. "Makes these technologies easy to understand." "I feel very comfortable going to her with my technology questions because she explains at my level of understanding."
- adept at differentiation
- strong communicator and team-builder
- proactive, resourceful program developer with sensitivity to balancing needs in the "whole school's big picture"
- committed to community involvement, service learning, environmental custodianship, and helping students find their unique voices
Commitment to Lifelong Learning:
- Masters Degree in Teaching from Teachers' College, Columbia University
- Bachelor's Degree with double major in Government and Soviet Studies from Cornell University
- additional Masters level coursework for certification as a library media specialist
- training and leadership in Gifted Education
- 15 years experience that includes classroom teaching, curriculum development, department chairmanship, gifted and talented program coordination, library administration, information literacy program coordination, distance learning program coordination, and 1:1 Laptop Initiative
- perspective and experienced leadership working in several international schools around the world including Taipei American School and Hong Kong International School
- Community Involvement: PTA faculty representative, baseball coach, PDK webmaster, new teacher orientation, US Voter Registration, Friends (Quaker) Monthly Meeting, and other.
Extensive Training and Experience with Pedagogical Best Practices:
- Understanding By Design (UbD) curriculum building-- designed and implemented curriculum writing model at Hong Kong International School (see article)
- standards-based assessment reflective of the US national standards promoted by the NCSS, ISTE, The American Library Association's AASL and NSTA
- differentiation for ESL students
- Gifted and Talented leadership in identification of needs, parent and student counseling, and delivery of services
- Art Costa's Habits of Mind
- Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats for cooperative learning
- Charlotte Danielson's standards for teaching
- Big6 Research Process for implementing skills to develop Information Literacy
- Six Traits Writing
- Guided Reading with Fountas and Pinnell
- Literacy continuum of Bonnie Campbell Hill
- Brain-based learning strategies
- Curriculum mapping using Atlas-Rubicon and similar tools
Tech Skills and Leadership to support school wide Professional Development and Operations:
- provide workshops to support Laptop 1:1 implementation at Taipei American School
- online Virtual School as a response to SARS crisis at Hong Kong International School when school closed for a month
- online curriculum mapping with Atlas-Rubicon and MyDragonnet
- online classroom management tools including Blackboard and Moodle
- Web 2.0 collaborative tools for student-centered learning, including Google Aps
- Development of web pages, online instructional videos, and online classrooms for virtual and distance learning
- provide one-on-one technology coaching to Mandarin teachers, science coordinators, health teachers, social studies and humanities teachers
- webmaster using Mambo, Moodle, Web Expressions, Google Sites and Frontpage as well as Web 2.0 applications
- Library Software: Destiny Catalog, SIRS, Ebsco, World Book, Britannica, NovelList databases, Noodletools, Scholastic Reading Counts (Reading Program) database management
- See listing of technology proficiencies here.
Educational Leadership for Innovative Instruction:
- Published articles related to curriculum development, and using technology and images to enhance learning
- workshop presentations on habits of mind, needs of the gifted learner, inquiry and the research process, concept mapping, and integration of many technologies
- served "Student Services Team" as Gifted and Talented Program Coordinator
- Strategic Planning and WASC Accreditation: steering committee member, committee chairperson