Within my first year of undergraduate studies I considered being a music major, an English major, an art major, and then realized I could do them all in elementary education. That's where I stayed through my undergraduate work. My graduate work has been in reading, elementary school administration, and educational leadership and policy studies.

Two professors stand out. One was this little bitty female professor
of English who had stern control of even the biggest football players. She was my role model. A second professor taught linguistics and opened the world of cognitive language studies to me.

Constructivism holds the most promise for me. I believe it fits best with the concepts of current brain research on how children learn.

Music will always be my first love. I still play piano daily, and I also play
in an English handbell choir at church. I also enjoy many sewing tasks -- garment sewing counted cross stitch, and I've recently become very interested in quilting by machine. Lastly, I enjoy kayaking and a good game of golf.

While it is not highly academic, Clan of the Cave Bears is my favorite book.
It speculates on the development of language and social skills in early man. I have dozens of favorites quotes. The two most favorite are "All of us are smarter than any of us," and "Progress always involves risk. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first."

I've primarily been teaching Curriculum and Instruction and Introduction to Education. In the fall of 2000 I will be co-teaching Professional Studies, one of the first courses in our new integrated program.

My interest lies in discovering more about learning. For that reason, I look to all studies that have to do with understanding the brain and those that experiment with new learning strategies.

I love learning, and therefore I love teaching pre-service teachers about learning. I'm happy to be at FGCU and excited to work with our teacher education students.