I love stories.  Sharing them, reading them, listening to them, watching them.  When I was 15 and very bored one summer, my mom stopped at the local bookstore and asked for recommendations by telling the clerk, "My daughter likes to read."  She brought home Toni Morrison's Sula, and everything changed.  Now here was a story where everything - from the setting in the Bottom to the characters like Sula and the plague of robins that returns with her to town - jumped out in Technicolor from the page.

And it wasn't just reading that excited me; even more, it was talking about stories with other people.  In all of my classes, I gained better understanding when working with other students.  Each person brings a piece of understanding which, when combined with others' understandings, creates something new.  This is why I teach - because I want to facilitate understanding of literature and language. 

This is my fifth year at Washington Technology Magnet School and my twenty-second year in Saint Paul.  I have a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Education in Language Arts from the University of Minnesota, and a Master of Science in School Counseling from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls.  At Washington I teach English 11 and Saint Paul College Composition 1.