I have been an educator since 1992. I have worked as a classroom teacher and media specialist in an elementary Quaker school (Plymouth Meeting Friends School), a middle school teacher at an international school in China (TEDA International School Tianjin, now known as International School of Tianjin), and a middle school social studies teacher in a public school (Summit Parkway Middle School). After eleven years of full-time classroom teaching, in 2004 I helped to start a new magnet program for middle school students. This was the first all-day single-gender public middle school program in the state of South Carolina. I served as administrator and teacher for
At the present time, I am an eighth grade social studies teacher. I returned to the classroom after four-and-a-half years as the nation's first and only Coordinator for Single-Gender Education at the state level. In July 2007 I was hired by the South Carolina Department of Education to support single-gender initiatives. Since that time, the number of schools with single-gender programs has grown from 40 to over 160 in the state.
I continue to work as an independent consultant with schools across the country. I have worked with schools in: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC. In February 2011, I was invited to speak in Porto, Portugal and Madrid, Sevilla, and Barcelona, Spain. I returned to Portugal in September 2011 to work with four schools in Porto and Lisbon.
My educational practice is strongly influenced by inquiry-based teaching, problem-based learning, constructivism, and providing students choice. While teaching I conducted several action research projects which I presented at the American Educational Research Association national conferences. These papers were based on the use of Big Ideas and on problem-based learning.
My main work at this time is with raising the awareness of gender within the classroom, coed or single-gender, and working with teachers to bring best practice into their classrooms for boys and girls. I also work with schools that are implementing single-gender programs. I recently started a new blog titled Gender and the Classroom. This blog brings the issue of gender into all classrooms.
I am the author of A Gendered Choice: Designing and Implementing Single-Sex Programs and Schools published by Corwin Press (November 17, 2009).
I co-authored an article titled: Single-Gender Classrooms for the September 2009 issue of School Administrator. On March 18, 2010 my article titled "Single-Gender Classes Can Respond to the Needs of Boys and Girls" appeared in ASCD Express. Another article appeared in The International Educator (TIE) in April 2010.
My approach to single-gender education comes from the combination of fourteen years as a classroom teacher, three years as an administrator of a single-gender program, knowledge about recent research on gender differences, and a statewide view of organizing, training, and troubleshooting teaching within single-gender programs. My unique perspective combines the practical aspect of the teacher, the organizational issues of an administrator, and theoretical concerns of researchers.
