For the past two years I have been a Kindergarten teacher at McCall Elementary in Plano Texas. I was honored to be named as 2006 Teacher of the Year for the Plano Independent School District.During the past year I gained my certification to teach gifted students and will be teaching 3rd grade PACE in the fall of 2007. I obtained my Bachelors in interdisciplinary studies at the University of North Texas. My passion for teaching began at a very early age. When I was 13 my father passed away. His death made me ponder what mark I wanted to leave on society and how I wanted to make the most of my life. The only obvious occupational choice was teaching. Teachers have the power to impact thousands of students in their lifetime. They have the ability to empower children to make their dreams a reality. In my class room I try my ultimate best to ensure that I meet the emotional and educational of my students and empower them as individuals to do their personal best.The subject I enjoy teaching the most is reading because I like the challenge of making stories come alive to my students. I also enjoy building their individual knowledge base to make them the best readers they can be as well as making reading enjoyable.

Education should be a exciting journey.I have been a summer missionary to Jamaica for the past four years. Through my visits to the schools and conversations with the teachers I saw a need for additional educational support. I began to discuss possible strategies with Jamaica Link Ministries that could be implemented to aid Jamaican educators as well as educational leaders in providing superior education to all students. We decided to hold annual teachers conferences to enhance the curriculum and ideas that are currently in place in Jamaica.It is my opinion that all children regardless of race, culture, economic status or nationality deserve a superior education.

I began Teach With Jamaica with the support of the leaders of Jamaica Link Ministries. It is our goal to work with Jamaican educations and supply them with additional training in the areas of math, reading, and special education and to supply them with educational resources and manipulative. I also believe that I can learn many valuable things from the teachers of Jamaica that I can use to benefit my future students.Through this collaboration I hope to see more and more dreams come true for the children of both of our nations. Anatole France said it best when he stated that “To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.”