ms-charleston-yawp

Biography

I work for eNotes as a Staff Review Editor. I adore this job that allows me to interact with students and teachers all over the world answering questions and reviewing answers in my field, all the while submitting and reviewing lesson plans and combating cheating and plagiarism. I also have a great love for classroom teaching, however, so here's my personality in that arena: I’m the craziest teacher you’ll ever meet who ALWAYS wears a bright smile. In personality I most closely resemble an amalgamation of Ms. Frizzle in the Magic Schoolbus series and Mr. Keating in Dead Poets Society. Lots of nonconformity and unconventionality. My trademarks? Using short movie clips and games to teach, dancing the Charleston with my students at the end of my 1920’s literature unit, and allowing my students to truly experience a Transcendentalist Yawp within nature. I am married to American Literature, but my true love is British Literature and anyone who writes it (especially the sexy Alfred Tennyson). In Ms. Charleston YAWP’s class, suddenly Literature ceases to be only educational, . . . and begins to be physical. I have taught for many years, am in love with my profession and can’t wait to interact with students in a this new online format! My experience is divided as follows: half at Spartanburg High School (an inner city school in Spartanburg SC) and half at Sacred Heart Academy (a private all-girls prep school in Hamden, CT) in addition to teaching at Sylvan Learning Center in Cary, NC. I am, therefore, certified to teach secondary school in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Connecticut. How versatile I am! Any high school level of Literature excites me, but I most enjoy teaching American Literature (often to 10th graders), . . . but I can’t leave out my lust for teaching British Literature as well (often to 11th graders). There are certainly bright moments in teaching World Literature as well and, although I enjoy the subjectivity of grammar, I don’t usually enjoy teaching grammar as a subject. Furthermore, I’m all about making teaching FUN. Lots of awards under my belt from both students and colleagues including Teacher of the Week . I am also featured in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.