A Bit About Me
While I was attending San Francisco State University's graduate program to become a special education teacher, I kept hearing this magical word, inclusion. I was hooked. Once being hired as a teacher, I was shocked that schools excluded students with disabilities.
After a year into teaching, I had all of my students in their age-appropriate general education classrooms for portions of the day and the community growing stronger. I then created a Buddy Class curriculum that I used with another teacher. Buddy Class was when we separated our classrooms into two groups and taught the same lesson in our classrooms. The students created genuine relationships with each other and gained more understanding towards other people's differences.
After teaching in the classroom for 5 years, I left to become an educational specialist with my state's deafblind project and supported teams who had students who are deafblind, coached teams on best practices, and presented to all of the deafblind state projects.
​
After having two children of my own, I attempted to step back from working but instead, wrote a book called Tyler the Snake and created an e-course called 10 Tips on How To Get Inclusion at Your School -->.
To check out my entire curriculum vitae click here.
​
I look forward to working with you!
.png)
Work Experience
August 2012-June 2014
June 2014-June 2019
July 2019-December 2022.
April 2023-Present
My first experience in the classroom was as a one-to-one aide for a student who is deafblind. We used total communication, mobility aids, and experienced scheduling with a team of 15+ members. I used American Sign Language with this student and eventually worked for his family outside of the classroom as a specialist.
The next 5 years I was a teacher. The first four years at an elementary school in Daly City, CA and the last year at a middle school in Costa Mesa, CA. As a teacher, I was also the case manager of all of my students and grew every student's minutes with their peers.
Lastly, I was an educational specialist and independent living teacher for organizations that supported the deafblind community. Within these few years I gave webinars to deafblind projects across the nation, taught para-professionals how to be interveners, and worked as a coach with teams to help build appropriate practices for their students.
Board member and Vice President of The Recess Project!!
​
