Stories of my Learning
(click on the icon and hear my voice)

I grew up as an Air Force brat. In the first 11 years of my life, I probably went to 6 schools. I don't think I ever went to the same school more than a year until I entered Junior High. When we lived in Alabama (my first three grades in school), my mother would often go back to Sequim, Washington, where my grandparents lived, for a long Christmas break, and put me into school there. As a result, I developed some very bad habits. I could get away with procrastination and putting off finishing projects. I also didn't make any lifelong friends. We moved to England right before Christmas in my 5th grade, and moved back to Seattle by Thanksgiving of my 6th grade. Finally, we settled down and I could start making lasting friendships. Junior High was an interesting learning experience for me. My tendencies toward procrastination made it a difficult time, and my grades weren't great, but I was in an honors program, learning French and taking accellerated math. Seventh grade also provided one of my most vivid memories of learning:	Click on the screen below to play the digital video clip Choices - a digital story of adolescent learning script and reflection
Reflecting back on that learning experience as a professional educator, I realize what an impossible task I was given... that it takes time to build those synapses... that memorization has its place in learning, but I didn't derive the true meaning of the poem until much later in life. High school was were I started to shine. I started getting straight A's. I graduated as a member of the Honor Society. I took choir and drama. I'd wanted to be an actress since junior high. I starred in the school playsduring my junior and senior years.	My High School Acting Scrapbook Script (video under development)
After graduating from high school, I went to Whitman College. There I took Choir and Drama, and was in quite a few campus productions, including two Shakespeare plays, A Comedy of Errors and Othello. I played Iago's wife, Amelia, and earned the campus award for acting that year. I was all ready to come back the next year, and start an Education minor so that I could get a teaching certificate. But love intervened, and I never returned to Whitman. Instead, I was married in the fall of 1964. Married life became routine. It took us a few years of working to be able to afford a house big enough to raise a family,. But after almost five years, Chris was born. Motherhood agreed with me. I loved that first year of his life. I stayed home, nursed him, and adjusted to a new phase of my life.
I went back to work when Chris was two. That was a very difficult decision, but there were personal financial reasons. But I only worked temporary or part time during that year. Erin was born when Chris was almost 3 and a half. I returned to work part time for a couple of years. Then we moved to Alaska when Erin was 3 and Chris was 6. Alaska was an adventure. I wrote many long letters home during those first seven years. My job with Interior Village Association (IVA) was my undergraduate degree in management. I had so many wonderful opportunities to learn and grow, just by the nature of the organization and my role as senior staff member after the first year. We lived near the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, so I took a course almost every semester during those first few years with IVA. I also learned to write grants, and because quite proficient at getting CETA grants to add to IVA's non-profit staff. I also had an opportunity to meet Malcolm Knowles who was brought to Fairbanks by the Adult Learning Programs of Alaska (ALPA). Malcomn Knowles introduced me to a concept that I had practiced for years, but had not named: Self-Directed Learning! It was another profound "AHA" experience for me. It was through my acquaintance with my good friends at ALPA and Malcolm Knowles, that I learned about Fielding.
I knew I wanted to get a degree. I even enrolled at the University of Alaska, but the program didn't fit my needs. I had to start at the beginning... they didn't have a mechanism to validate all that I had learned at IVA. But the Fielding Institute was perfect for me. They didn't require a Bachelors Degree to enter the program. I went to the Admissions Workshop, shared a lot of my work with the Villages, and was accepted into the program, with the caveat that I take some writing courses. Well, because of my procrastination and insecurity about my writing, I never turned in an assessment to Fielding for the first three years! I bought my first computer in 1981, prior to entering the Fielding Program. I needed a word processor! I bought an Apple II+, another decision that changed my life. Soon after I entered Fielding, I started teaching computer classes for the Tanana Valley Community College in Fairbanks. I left IVA and went to work for the Fairbanks School District
Staff Development Fielding Dissertation and Graduation UAA and PRIDE and teaching
Breast Cancer	Breast Cancer script (video under development)
PT3 and ISTE NETS
ePortfolios and Digital Storytelling	To: Dad
What's next?	Goals script