Passionate Educator
I have been teaching in the public school system since 1999. My passions are technology and the fine arts. I clearly remember the commercial for Apple in 1984 and the excitement of working on an Apple II computer in elementary school. I would spend hours writing code until the teachers made me go home. My parents provided me with piano lessons from age two, and I accompanied my school choirs as a student. I worked for a local university in high school as the choir accompanist. Technology and music came together in my undergraduate music education degree when I began to write music using compositional software. In 2015, I presented at the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association state conference on implementing music applications for rehearsal techniques. I hold a master's degree in multimedia technologies and share my love of multimedia and music daily with my students. Most recently, I completed my doctoral studies at West Virginia University, earning my Ed. D. in Instructional Design & Technology. My dissertation title is "The Lived Experiences of Selected Choral Directors During the COVID-19 Pandemic". If you would like to read it, you can download it here! I hold Apple Teacher and Google Educator certifications and am a micro-credential National Ambassador for Digital Promise. Through Elizabeth Forward, I was part of the initial cohort for Modern Teacher. I presented a research project on changing teaching pedagogy and technology implementation at Apple in Cupertino in December 2019. I am enjoying designing my online courses for my students in Canvas. Aside from my duties at Elizabeth Forward, I also serve as an instructional designer for Pennsylvania Western University - Global Online. I enjoy riding my 2023 Can-Am Spyder (Sea to Sky), 2021 Ural 750, or Kawasaki Z125 when I am not at work. I also enjoy crafting and serving as a cantor at my parish (St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church in Belle Vernon, PA).