About

Ever since childhood, I have loved reading and writing and teaching and learning. I earned my State of Alabama teacher certification in 1992, but I started “teaching” many years earlier, with my parents and playmates as my “students!”

After I got older and graduated from college, I taught every grade and ability level of middle-school and high-school English, from seventh graders struggling to get organized to seniors striving to achieve a qualifying score on Advanced Placement exams. Every group of students was unique, and I enjoyed working with every one of them!

From teaching in my first classroom, a crumbling wooden portable, to my last classroom in a 30-million-dollar facility equipped with the latest technology, my students, colleagues, and I had good times, bad times, tragic times, and wonderful times. I have so many happy memories from those 28 years!

Here’s a fun fact about me: I took my lunch to school every day of my teaching career. Yes, that’s right. Every. Single. Day.

Let’s do some math: [(28 years in the classroom) x (180 school year days)] – [(84 days to allow for some personal & sick leave) + (52 days due to the COVID shutdown)] = DRUM ROLL . . . 4,904 homemade lunches! Whew, that’s a LOT of lunches!

From doing hall duty to sponsoring prom to preparing students for standardized tests, I’ve done it all. All of the resources I create are based on my real-life, “been-there-done-that” classroom teaching experiences with middle-school and high-school students.

For more than 30 years, I have been working with secondary middle-school, high-school, and college-aged students as well as publishing teaching-related resources and research. Today, I focus on creating products to help my fellow educators with everything related to teaching, learning, and living.

Undergraduate minors in economics and finance, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in secondary education, and a whole lot of real-life experience help me to provide teachers with the resources they need for achieving their personal and professional goals as well as for living the best life possible!

Teachers face so many challenges and give so much of themselves. It’s easy to put ourselves last as we help others. Please use the resources I provide to keep you look after yourself and make your own life easier! That’s why I chose this blog name—I want to help you Save Your Best Life!