I graduated from Illinois State University in 2005. During Senior year I took part in PDS – Professional Development School, which cemented my interest in teaching. I teach in the school where I student taught. How's that for luck?

My middle school's demographics (2005 school report card):

• 60.8% Hispanic
• 31.3% White
• 4.9% Asian
• 2.5% Black
• 43.2% Low Income
• 40.0% Limited English Proficiency

My school structures its day according to the middle school philosophy. I work on a team with two other teachers. I teach language arts as well as social studies and science. In fact, my teammates also teach mathematics.

My students receive a minimum of one hour of mathematics instruction each day. There is also an hour for skills development in the afternoon where students work on math skills two days a week and devote the other days of the week to language arts, science, and social studies skills.

Our school offers many programs to support our students in their math achievement. Every grade level has a set of warm-ups that are completed either in a math class or skills class. These warm-ups reinforce basic skills that students should have or should be learning over the course of the year. We also have a program called MBAs (Math Before and Afterschool). Each team identifies a group of students that they feel needs extra support in basic math skills. The students that are part of this program come two days before or afterschool to work on their assigned computer program. The programs range from integers (adding, subtracting, etc) to prealgebra. Teachers in our school volunteer their time to supervise this program.

There are also ELL (English Language Learners) math
classes offered to students who struggle with math. In
addition, there is a math lab class offered one or two
trimesters a year that supports students in their math
basic skills.

Outside of the school day, I love to listen to music, I like to sing and go to the theater. My all-time favorite musical is "Wicked."