About Me
My teaching journey began as a child when I would dress up as Mother Goose and read to my siblings. In fact, my poor siblings were victims of my teaching game quite often, which is part of the reason my brother began calling me Rafiki - forever teasing me about being a wise old monkey. It's a nickname that stuck and even my students, whereupon learning my nickname, often called me Miss Rafiki. They say you play how you work, that was true for me at least, because no one was surprised that I wanted to go to school to become an English/Language Arts teacher. Immediately after receiving my teaching certificate in 2007 from Doane College I signed a contract to teach reading in a Title 1 school, where I focused my attention on giving failing readers keys to reading success, which was a major challenge considering most of my students came into my classroom reading below grade level and I did not have a curriculum - so I began creating one. Two years later I was married and then in 2010, I completed my Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction. After five years in the classroom, I found out I was expecting our first child. My husband and I decided that I would spend the first five years of our children's lives at home with them where my real education began! The opportunity to be at home with my girls opened the doors to pursue many teaching endeavors because teaching isn't just something I do, it's my calling! My first calling is to equip the two little people God put in my life to learn anything, anywhere, with or without me.
Immediately after taking a sabbatical from the classroom I worked in education by:
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tutoring readers and writers (examples: a nurse seeking to do well on the writing portion of her GRE test, a struggling early elementary reader, a high school student struggling with spelling, etc.).
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teaching my own kindergartner how to read, who is now a 1st grader thriving in the Lowery homeschool classroom.
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teaching an adult education class through Western Nebraska Community College.
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pursuing my Reading Specialist degree.
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completing my Apple Teacher Certification.
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taking on a part-time job in the library as the cataloging and technical librarian.
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creating a local Youth Library Advisory Board alongside a high school student and volunteering as the advisor.
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teaching 5th-6th graders about their identity in Jesus Christ: what the Bible says about God and who He created them to be.
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Today, I am a 6-8 grade English/Language Arts Teacher at a Christian school!