Room(s): P6-Portable

Phone Number(s): 252-3910

Bios:

I am the teacher in Portable 6, one of the dyspraxic classrooms at Ingraham High School. I was born in Philadelphia, raised in New Jersey and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature at Rowan University in South Jersey. As a high school and college student I worked as an instructional assistant with students that had moderate to severe disabilities and after I graduated from college my first full-time job was working as a ceramics and horticulture teacher in an Adult Activity Center where adults with disabilities came to learn life skills and leisure skills.

I moved to Seattle in 1979 and worked for about a year for United Cerebral Palsy and then took a position as an Activities Program Director at a north end nursing home where I worked for 4 years and renewed my interest in crafts and ceramics. For several years after that I worked in group homes and in a plant nursery. In 1987 I started working as a shift charge at Fircrest School RHC. While working there with adults that had severe behavior and health challenges as well as developmental disabilities I went to the University of Washington and earned my Master of Education degree, ESL endorsement and teaching certificate.

My first teaching job was at the Bilingual Orientation Center with the Seattle School District where I taught students with special needs and ESL students, some of whom were pre-literate. I taught there for a year and then in 2001 I was hired at Ingraham to start the first dyspraxic classroom at the high school level. The students in the dyspraxic classrooms have a variety of educational challenges such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, cerebral palsy, cognitive disabilities, and motor planning issues. I enjoy working with each individual student to determine their own barriers to learning and figuring out how to overcome those barriers or work around them. Students are taking classes with several teachers in our department as well as other classes in the school and I work closely with my colleagues to put together a plan that will result in success for each student.