A Professional History:
Commercial Fisherman-At age 14, I began working as a deckhand out of Homer Alaska, by age 23 I co-owned, managed and operated a commercial salmon boat.  It is through this work that I developed my resourcefulness, determination, organizational and navigational skills.
Outdoor Educator- Using my boat as a vehicle for experiential education, I hired struggling youth to help them  develop self-competence and job skills for the future.  I also helped guide hiking, climbing, biking and kayaking trips for local schools and programs for Native Alaskans.   Eventually I moved to Santa Cruz to work teaching Outdoor Education to students in grades 4-8.   My competencies developed in the area of team building, motivation, thematic instruction, science literacy and integrating performance arts with science learning.
Public School Teacher- I began my career teaching high school science.  Once in Portland, I taught math, Spanish, ESL, LA/SS and PE in middle schools for 3 years and and worked as a fifth grade teacher at Richmond Elementary School for 4 years. During these years I developed the ability to write, evaluate and map curriculum and to respond to students' needs with specific interventions and collaborative problem solving.
Teacher Leader- Invited by a curriculum specialist to become a Writing Facilitator, I entered into the world of teacher leadership. The position transformed to an Instructional Facilitator and as the 3-5 Team Leader, our teams used  RTI with Writing (Work Samples), Math (Pre-test) and Reading (Easy CBM).  As the Nike School Innovation Fund Portland Leadership Collaborative school leadership team, we introduced our staff to Data-Wise, discovered learner-centered problems, problems of practice, and planned instructional strategies and professional development to address these needs.  We created a school wide list of students in the bottom 20% of their class and developed school wide interventions for them, such as common editing strategies and Walk-to-Read.
Achievement Coordinator- While co-writing lessons for the district writing binders, the previous director of curriculum suggested I apply for an Achievement Coordinator position.  I now am part of the PPS district Literacy Committee,  Sheltered Instruction Professional Development Team, Nike School Innovation Fund Portland Leadership Collaborative Planning Team and the Professional Development Advisory Committee.  I support site-based leadership teams and provide district wide professional development and teacher and data-team coaching.