She works with MICTED Education Profession students, helping them get out of the college classroom and into real classrooms, where they can learn alongside experienced mentor teachers. Students spend more time in field placements than typically required, giving them plenty of opportunities to see what teaching really looks like day to day.
When they come back together each week, they talk about what they’re seeing and experiencing. What makes a teacher effective? What helps a classroom run well? What are great teachers doing that helps their students learn? Then she sends them back into their field placements with a challenge: Look for those things happening in real time.
For her, one of the best parts is seeing just how excited these future teachers are to be there. Some enjoy their placements so much that they’re showing up on extra days—even when they don’t have to. “It makes my heart happy to see people who are so excited to be working with children,” she says. “They want to be in schools, and they want to be teachers.”
Her own journey to the classroom wasn’t exactly a straight line. Born and raised in Prescott, she attended Prescott High School and Yavapai College before heading to Northern Arizona University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in geology. But an early interest in education—and a job at a Montessori preschool that she loved—eventually brought her back to teaching. She went on to earn a master’s degree in secondary science education.
Since then, her career has taken her in quite a few directions. She’s taught middle and high school science, taught English in South Korea, led STEM clubs and camps through the Arizona Science Center, worked with students on the Navajo Nation, provided professional development for teachers, taught future educators through NAU, and supervised student teachers throughout Yavapai County.
It may sound like a winding path, but all of those experiences have led her right back to something she clearly loves: helping future teachers find their place in the classroom. Mountain Institute—and especially the students who get to learn from her—are lucky to have an educator who brings so much experience, enthusiasm, and heart to the work.