My Background

After graduating from the University of Florida in 1968, I moved to Atlanta and began teaching in the Business Education field at Brown High School.  In 1970 I joined the staff at Clarkston High School in DeKalb County and remained there until I retired in May of 2002. I attended Georgia State University from 1969 to 1976 part-time where  I earned by Masters, Education Specialist, and Ph.D. in Business Education.

My 34 years of teaching were very rewarding and inspiring.  I thoroughly enjoyed the young people I had the privilege of working with all those years and although I am very happy to be teaching at North Georgia, I miss the children from my old school!

My duties at Clarkston included teaching 4 classes in the computer field.  I taught our 2nd year course which included Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Power Point, and Front Page and our 3rd year class which included PageMaker and PhotoShop.  In addition, I coordinated the work study program, Cooperative Business Education.  I was also the advisor for the Future Business Leaders of America.  Our chapter was outstanding and won many region, state, and national awards.  In addition, I was the department chair for the Career Technology Department and the Fine Arts Department.  I was also very involved in the Tech Prep Program and the High Schools That Work program.  I was teacher of the year for my school two times,  region advisor of year for FBLA five times, and was awarded an honorary life membership in FBLA at the 2003 State Conference.

I had such a great experience teaching at Clarkston!  Our school was very diverse.  Our population was about 70% African-American and 30% international.  We had 47 different countries represented at our school and 51 different languages.  I learned about different religions, cultures, and customs--it was like being in a model United Nations.  The best part of the experience was seeing how all the children got along with each other.  In fact, Emory University prepared a documentary about Clarkston and its' diversity and about how well the students all worked together.

After I retired in May, 2002, my husband and I moved to Chestatee in Dawsonville.  I began teaching part-time at North Georgia in August of 2002.  I have one son, Brian, who graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Environmental Studies.  He is currently employed at DC and E Planning  in San Francisco.

I hope that I will be able to relay some of the enthusiasm and excitement that I have about teaching to the future teachers in my classroom!  You've chosen a career that will be challenging and rewarding!