Helloooooooo Students and Families!

This year marks my 31st year of teaching in Saint Paul Public Schools and my 10th with middle schoolers at Capitol Hill.  In addition to English Language (EL) classes, I teach 6th grade Reader's and Writer's Workshop with Ms. Schibel and 7th grade English Language Arts with Mr. Ellickson.  Our middle school is lucky to have students who speak Karen, Vietnamese, Hmong, Burmese, Amharic, Harari, Somali, Oromo, Tigrinya, Arabic, and Spanish!  

Did you know that Capitol Hill has its own middle school GSA (Gender-Sexuality Alliance)?  We do!  And it ranks among the LARGEST in the entire USA!   If you would like to join our GSA, named GLOW by students a decade ago, please let me know because I am one of the group's teacher leaders.  Each year, GLOW is filled with incredible middle schoolers who are driven to make Capitol Hill a safe school for ALL students.

My passions include my family, my three cats, soccer, gardening, camping, biking, hiking, learning other languages, listening to music, collecting Godzilla toys, reading all sorts of books, and eating spicy vegetarian foods.  Both of my daughters graduated from Como Park High School and now attend the University of Minnesota.  One of my favorite places in Saint Paul is Como Lake, especially in the spring when the loons return and in the autumn when leaves change colors.  Watching movies and eating popcorn at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis is something my family and I love to do on the weekends.

Last summer, my family and I traveled to Paris, Berlin, and Munich. My favorite adventure on the trip was viewing the Paris catacombs.  If you've never heard of them, check out their history here.