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After graduation, I went to Chicago and worked there for three years as a junior high English teacher in a the suburbs while living in the Hyde Park (UofCHICAGO) neighborhood.  My inspiration for going into education was my own 8th grade English teacher who was a fireball on grammar and made us memorize the 50 prepositions – among many other things – and I can still say them all! 

 Leaving Chicago to go to Kansas to attend graduate school in Library Science was more fun that it sounds like it would be.  Thus, I have a B. A. from UofMichigan and M.A. in Library Science from Kansas State Teachers College and a Media Specialist Degree from St. Cloud State University.  In general, I just like taking classes and learning; it’s fun.  I have usually picked up classes anywhere I have lived or worked in the nearby colleges or universities.

I have had a variety of jobs in Education and Library work.  I have been to Helena MT and worked at the Lewis and Clark Public Library where people came to get information on how to build their trucks as light as possible for truck sorts of contests as well as how to build their own outhouse—a real group of do-it-yourself-ers.  Hiking, exploring and jogging in the wonderfully scenic wilderness areas of MT was exhiliarating.

For three years I lived in a town called Mallard IA where there were 400 people.  I took a job there as the Librarian at a K-12 school.  I thought it would be enriching for my daughter to share my Iowa roots and felt the small town experience would be unique for both of us.  It was! 

In the Cities, I have worked at Hill Library where I worked Reference as well as Public Relations and published a book on the various libraries in the Twin Cities and even did a 2nd edition

I have taught in junior high schools and high schools in the area.  I have worked academic, public and school libraries. I have even worked for the Senate and the House of Representatives at the State Capitol. .  I worked as a second job at the Red Balloon Bookshop (3 years) as well as the St. Paul Public Library (8 years).   I have felt fortunate to have had the rich variety of work experience.   In the St. Paul Public Schools I have work primarily at Johnson High School and Humboldt Senior High. 

  I think it would be safe to say that my only child, my daughter Wilhelmina, is the most important thing in my life but the children I have known and loved over the years are a close second.  We have been alone from the beginning and are very close.  There have been times when my daughter has been just a little jealous of my focus with my “other kids.”  Wilhelmina is 25 and getting married this October 1st in Chicago to Owen whom she has known for over six years.  They both went to the UofMICHIGAN which made that wolverine experience much more significant.  Now she is in her 2nd year of her PhD program in Psychology (Clinical) at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

I love what I do and with whom I work (kids and staff).  I think educators are “the nuts” meaning the best!  I think working with young people is a gift.  It’s nice to wake up each day and look forward to each day at work. 

I enjoy a variety of hobbies.  Most of you would guess the photography.  Also, I like reading as well as some physical things such as running, swimming, tennis, golf, and biking.  I love movies and my daughter and I sometimes go to a movie together even though she is in Chicago and I am here.  Go figure!

In reading a little about Sharon Draper, an author of books entitled Tears of a Tiger, Forged by Fire and many others, I was stricken by the words she used to describe herself as a person and as an educator:  “…I see rainbows where others see only rain, and possibilities when others see problems…I am a learner and a seeker of knowledge, and I take my students along on my journey.  I smile often, and laugh easily, and I weep at pain and cruelty.  I love what I do, and I’m good at it.  I learned to dream through reading, learned to create dreams through writing, and learned to develop dreamers through teaching.  I shall always be a dreamer.”

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