All permissions have been given by parents to show images of these students, or images were made public by the school and approved by the school administration.

Advocating Success for all Students

As an elementary school music teacher, I see all 700+ students in the building. I strive to know every student as an individual, develop their strengths, and work on their weaknesses. It is my mission to create a place where EVERY student succeeds EVERY day in an enriching and safe environment.

This will continue to be my vision as a school leader. I look forward to helping the entire school staff foster a place of safety and academic success! 

Developing Staff Capacity through Professional Development

I developed and delivered this presentation to the Mathews ES teaching faculty 2022, after a desire for more productive planning time was discovered in school SAS data.

I volunteered to research and present on this topic after the need was addressed in a previous meeting.
These images are excerpts from a presentation I developed and delivered for the MCSD Aspiring Assistant Principals Cohort, April 2024.  This professional development uses unique and creative approaches to delivery like visual art, reflection, question and answer, story telling,  and role-play to best understand the content and it's application.
This presentation was developed and delivered to all Elementary Music Teachers as a Professional Development during Contact Day for the 2024-25 school year. Again, I use effective and accessible methods to deliver content to other professionals in a meaningful and applicable way, in this instance, reflection with peers, a conversational approach, and easy to understand data points.

Enriching the School Climate

I love being able to tap into the community to help build our school climate. Each year I develop a new show, learning from aspects of previous shows to create a vibrant experience for our school. I work with all students, parents, staff, and the administrative team to create an event that honors our Veterans and active military - while teaching important SEL lessons, American history, and musical/artistic expression.

Advocating High-Quality Instruction

This presentation was developed for all MCSD arts teachers and delivered at the "Just the F.A.C.T.s" - Fine Arts Contact Day 2023. I was selected to present on this topic after realizing a need in our district for active student-enrichment in the general arts classrooms. This is one of 3 district-wide Professional Developments I have led in the last 2 years.

As a school leader, I will create needs-specific professional development to continue supporting every teacher and grow their capacity daily. My understanding of high-quality instruction allows these same skills - student engagement, classroom management, targeted and tiered interventions, data-driven decisions, and continuous professional improvement - to be applied to every subject and every teacher as needed.

Professionally Promoting Academic Success

The MCSD F.A.C.T. team focuses it's agenda on improving arts education for our students by supporting our teachers. We provide mentorship, appreciation, and community support to all arts teachers to promote their success and that of their students throughout the district.

​As Vice-Chairman, I headed up the data collection questionnaire for our district-wide Staff Development day, and helped program the 32 sessions based on that data, similar to the one shown above.

Leading School-Wide Behavior Interventions

Under my leadership, the PBIS team proactively provides supports for every student to succeed. I coach the team to generate accurate data, analyze behavior trends, and adjust school-wide procedures. I take pride leading and coaching the PBIS initiative at Mathews and do so with enthusiasm and fidelity. 

​This presentation was developed and is delivered yearly a school-wide introduction to our PBIS framework for teachers and students throughout the year. 

Inspiring Parental Involvement in Academic Achievement

I involve parents in their child's academics by providing opportunities for conversation and understanding. My current school uses ClassDojo, an online platform for parents and teachers to connect. On ClassDojo, I give parents a glimpse into the music classroom by sharing "Dojo Shows", or class performance videos that highlight the classes that are meeting my learning targets.

Parents also appreciate joining the academic process through book reading. I often present age/level-appropriate stories for my students during class time. I have worked with my school media specialist to ensure each story I read at school can be checked out from the library by our students and re-read at home with their families. This has led to many conversations with parents asking about my class, the curriculum, and the songs that I add to the stories.

Moreover, I work with my staff to open the school for special events that showcase all disciplines - Science, ELA, Math, and the Arts. Though I do not oversee the fall festival, I create a vibrate, educational folk dancing night during the festival to both showcase student proficiency in their educational goals and allow the parents to join in the education. Students teach their parents the dances, creating an academic bond between parent and student. 

I am currently working with a team of teachers to create similar events for math and reading nights - generating creative exploration with words and numbers, team-building games between student and parent, and constructive ideas for parents to take home and try with their young learners. My current community events experience have fostered many ideas yet to come!

Developing Rigor through Personalized Learning

To improve the academic success of my students and develop rigor in my program, I provide student-choice in most of my lessons. Further, I provide specific musical outlets via extra-curricular clubs that students can choose to be a part of. Creating personalized learning opportunities in all subject areas is critical for student academic improvement and owning one's education - which I advocate for every subject, every day.

I provide lessons that allow student choice and differentiation based on skill-level. I understand an important part of quality education stems from exploration. I provide scaffolding that allows students to anchor to concepts they would otherwise miss. This student playing the colorful piano finds success because of the color coding of the keys. The students in my extra-curricular clubs feel successful and lead others to success because of their exploration into musical areas that interest them. 

As a school leader, I would like to develop all staff members to an understanding in of the value of personalized learning, not just for under-achievers, or for over-achievers, but for all students to grow and explore their own love for learning in every subject.

Managing Operations and Budgets

As director of KinderWinds, I manage all tuition, expenses, building operations, and program operations with fidelity.
​I also generated funding ($3,541 for instructional materials + $2,000 donated for instruction time and student scholarship) through grant writing and scholarship donations to start this educational institution with a strong student base. We currently offer 3 classes a week - supporting 3 instructors and 27 enrolled students.

Communicating Project Initiatives

In 2020, I created a unique solution to the problems of COVID-19. The Mathews ES Veterans Day shows in 2020-22 included all school staff, all students, and opened an avenue for parents to continue to interact with their child's education. These events gave me experience effectively leading the whole school community and delegating personnel during a time where it was greatly needed and appreciated.
In May 2024, I was asked to be the point of contact for a school-wide mural in collaboration with Local artist, Sietske Johnson and non-profit, Fab-Arts. I had to cleverly construct a schedule for the artist and all school personnel that worked around the already busy week - containing end-of-year award programs, two showings of a PBIS reward event, special accommodations for gifted students, staff schedules, lunch/recess schedules, and the specials schedule. 

This beautiful mural is now a symbol of kindness in our school, created by every member of the Mathews staff and student body.

Developing  the Community and Fostering Community Partners

Engaging community partners provides our students with so much more than we can give alone. After a rained-out parade at the Holiday on Broad event, I quickly reached out to members of the community and created a performance opportunity in conjunction with the Fort Moore Maneuver of Excellence Army Band at the RiverCenter.  

 Fostering Success through a Shared Vision

This year, I initiated, organized, and promoted the Tiger Walk parades to showcase our "Terrific Tigers" - students who show excellent behavior daily as a part of our PBIS incentives. This event happens quarterly in a way to inspire other students to improve their behavior and improve the overall quality of instruction without detracting from classroom instructional time. They have been met with great success each quarter from both the students involved and the staff members.

Contact Me

If you would like to discuss any of the aforementioned leadership artifacts, or any other leadership opportunities, feel free to leave your information below and I'll touch base as soon as I can! I'd love to open a discussion. Thank You!