Email 1st grade
Phone: 712-737-2274 Ext. 223
Years at OCCS: 16
Endorsement Background: BA in Elementary education (grades K-8) with a reading endorsement from Dordt College
Professional Development: I taught first grade at OCCS from 1982-1985. From 1986-1987 I taught the enrichment program at OCCS and then after staying home with my children for several years I returned to OCCS and began working in the middle school resource room and classroom. During my years in the middle school, I taught Literature and Bible classes. During 2005-2007 I taught fulltime 5th grade classroom and then from 2006-2009 I taught fulltime first grade classroom. Last year I taught first grade in the morning and fifth in the afternoon and nowI am excited about being able to teach first grade fulltime again.
Family: I have a wonderful husband, Darren, who works at EZLiner Industries, a division of Diamond Vogel Paints. We have six children(two are in-laws). Our oldest son Aaron is married to Ashley and they live in Los Angeles where he is working in the movie industry and she is an engineer. Brandon is our second son and he is married to Erica. They are both seniors at Dordt majoring in business. Brandon is also focusing on pre-seminary courses and Erica on graphic design courses. Jordan is our third son and he is a freshman at Dordt. Kaly is our youngest and she is a freshman at Unity. Our family enjoys spending times together participating in and watching lots of football games. We also enjoy going to Christian music concerts and festivals.
Faith Statement:
Philippians 3:2-7 tells us that we are to have the servant mind of Christ. As a teacher I believe that this is extremely important. I must keep myself well grounded in God's word and well educated in all the areas of education that pertain to me. Having done this, I can better serve my family, my students, their parents, and other staff members. I believe that God has called me to teach and has blessed me over the many years I have taught. In education, I must make the needs of my students my first priority. It is my desire as a classroom teacher, to figure out each student's areas of strengths and weaknesses and then find methods to help them develop to their greatest potential and use their gifts to serve God and others.
