Fifth grade is a very exciting, yet critical year in a child’s educational life. While continuing to provide a variety of learning opportunities and experiences for our students, we will be busy building transitions between the final year in elementary school and the first year in middle school. Throughout this school year, it is our goal to help each student become more responsible and independent in developing strong organizational skills, study habits, and work completion. We hope to increase our students’ abilities to grow socially and emotionally in order to become better problem solvers as they face the new fears and challenges of moving on to middle school. Please join us in our efforts by reinforcing homework completion and daily reading at home. As a team, we will work with our students to help them achieve their goals and enjoy a successful and memorable fifth grade year.

I am a 1980 graduate of Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, holding a Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education and Special Education with an emphasis in Learning Disabilities. In August of 1980, I began my teaching career in the Omaha Public School District as a Special Education Resource teacher. A new career opportunity for my husband brought us to Colorado in September of 1985. I obtained my Masters Degree from the University of Colorado-Denver in the area of Special Education with a specialization in teaching the Educationally Handicapped. I have had the great pleasure of teaching at Highland since August 1986, both as a Special Education Resource teacher and as a 5th grade teacher. I truly enjoy teaching fifth grade students as each child brings so much energy and enthusiasm for learning into the classroom environment on a daily basis! While spending time at home, my favorite hobbies are singing, playing the piano, reading, biking, and taking long walks with my husband, Jack and our dog, Cooper.

 My teaching career began in Loveland, Colorado as a music teacher, after several years as a mother to four youngsters. I transferred into the regular classroom when I finished my Masters program in Elementary Education at UNC and taught 3rd and 6th grades. Then I had an opportunity to move to Littleton, where I taught music as a traveling music teacher to four schools, one of which was Highland Elementary. For the last umpteen years I have taught music, 4th and 5th grades, then looped several years from 4th to 5th with the same classes at Whitman Elementary. I loved that. I am very proud of my three sons and a daughter who live in Switzerland; New York; Provo, Utah, and Los Angeles. I have six grandchildren (and one on the way!) that I don’t get to see nearly often enough due to the distances (that I can be counted to gush on about should you ask….!) In my spare time I enjoy singing, playing the piano, painting with watercolor or oils and READING, READING, READING! Oh, and I mustn’t forget that I have the most wonderful husband in the world, another teacher like me, who cooks, cleans, and he even does window!

I graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in May of 2003, where I earned my Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with an emphasis in Elementary Education. I completed my Master's degree in Elementary Reading and Literacy through Walden University in January of 2006. I student taught at Highland and am very excited to be working in such a warm and caring building. I am delighted to be working with fifth graders as they bring so much enthusiasm to the classroom through their great ideas and eagerness to learn. I am a fourth generation native of Colorado, and I attended the Littleton Public Schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade. I live in Parker with my husband and in my spare time, I love singing and playing the piano. I also enjoy camping, swimming, and water skiing.