About Me

Nice to meet you

I am a wife, mother to six, grandmother to five, high school English teacher, RCIA instructor, and an oblate of St. Meinrad Archabbey in Southern Indiana. I’m currently the president of the county library board. This is a photo of me praying at the abbey.

I read all the time. Probably more than I should. Thankfully, the good Lord blessed me with the ability to read very fast.

I’m also interested in EVERYTHING! I read contemporary fiction and non fiction, classic works of literature, faith-based and spiritual books as well as books about teaching and learning. Sometimes, I read young adult fiction to keep up with my students.

I have my students read for the first 10 minutes of every class. That’s difficult for me to do because it is hard to tear myself away from a good book and also makes it tough to manage the classroom. I thought that becoming an English teacher would mean lots of reading time. Not so much. For work, I mostly read student produced essays and of course, what all the other teachers have to read.

Reading Next

I have a bookshelf full of books to read as well as a Kindle with quite a bit of unread content. Still, I order about every book that suits my fancy from Amazon. During the COVID-19 shutdown I found the Libby app and read some best sellers on my phone. We don’t have any book stores in this small town, but when I can, I love to browse the shelves.

I will be reading The Scarlet Letter with some of my classes. It is one of my all time favorite classic novels. I am reading Habits for Holiness and Imagine You Walked with Jesus: A Guide to Ignatian Contemplative Prayer for Lent. I am also reading Thank You for Arguing with another class. I am reading UDL NOW: A Teacher’s Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning in Today’s Classroom for professional development. Stacked next to my computer are three books on writing: The Business of Being a Writer, Publishing 101: A First-Time Author’s Guide and DIY MFA. On my Kindle I am listening to Atomic Habits a chapter at a time while I walk on the treadmill.