Biography
This is my tenth year teaching in higher education, the past 3 years as Assistant Clinical Professor of Social Studies and Teacher Education at IU Indianapolis. My passion is developing curriculum and teaching interns to do the same with authentic learning tasks and critical thinking. Prior to this, I was a Visiting Professor at IU Indianapolis for 3 years as well as one year ABD doctoral candidate teaching at IU Indianapolis. Three years before my IU Indianapolis teaching experiences, I was a doctoral candidate at IU Bloomington where I also taught for 3 years. I have a wide range of teaching experiences which are listed in my courses.
Eleven years ago I left the elementary classroom in a southern suburb of Chicago where I had taught for 14 years; 5 years of kindergarten, 8 years of first grade and one year of fourth grade. I co-wrote the kindergarten curriculum based on Social Studies and Science themes that were integrated with Literacy/Writing and Mathematics. This curriculum was presented for 5 years at the Illinois Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development for Kindergarten teachers. Additionally, I taught conceptual mathematics methods to teachers during the school year. Preceding my fourth grade year, I trained in Portland, OR with Susan Kovalik learning Backward Design for an intensive week and the year prior spent an intensive week in Chicago with Robin Fogarty and Brain Compatible Learning. I was able to teach Backward Design to my fourth graders and during our inquiry learning, they set up a Micro-society in our classroom complete with economic and judicial systems.
Education:
- Ph.D., in Curriculum and Instruction with a double minor in Early Childhood and Special Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 2005
- M.A.T., National Louis University, Evanston, IL, 1986
- B.S., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, 1975
Courses:
- EDUC-E 325 Social Studies in Elementary School
- EDUC-E 343 Recitation, Teaching Mathematics in Elementary Education
- EDUC-E 354 Early Childhood Mathematics Methods
- EDUC-E 449 Trade Books and the Classroom Teacher
- EDUC-E 535 Elementary School Curriculum
- EDUC-E 547 Elementary Social Studies Classrooms
- EDUC-F 100 First Year Seminar
- EDUC-F 200 Examining Self as Teacher
- EDUC-F 500 Social Studies Methods / History of Education
- EDUC-H 440 Capstone Seminar: American Elementary Education
- EDUC-H 520 Education and Social Studies
- EDUC-J 500 Instruction in the Context of Curriculum
- EDUC-L 559 Trade Books in Elementary Classrooms
- EDUC-M 201 Early Field Experience in Mathematics and Science
- EDUC-Q 200 Introduction to Scientific Inquiry
- EDUC-S 503 Secondary School Curriculum
Expert:
- Curriculum Framework for Equity
- Visual Literacy
- Sketchnotes
- Elementary Social Studies Methods
- Backward Design
- Early Childhood
- Elementary School Curriculum
- Curriculum Writing
- Integrated Learning
- UDL
- Critical Literacy Trade Books
Interests:
- Early Childhood
- Elementary School Curriculum
- UDL
- Integrative Learning
- Use of Critical Literacy Trade Books to teach Social Justice
- Visual Literacy
- Sketchnotes
Professional Associations:
- National Council for the Social Studies
- Indiana Council for the Social Studies
- Southern Poverty Law Center
- International Forum of Visual Practitioners