Instructional design,
learned in the room.

Promethean board rollout — nobody's job, so I made it mine

Self-directed lead · White Oak Elementary · 2024 – 2025

The school replaced its classroom televisions with Promethean boards and Chromeboxes. There was no assigned lead for the transition and no plan for getting teachers comfortable with ActivInspire — the software the boards actually run on, and the difference between an interactive board and a very expensive projector.

• I learned it first. Completed ActivInspire certification in January 2025 — 2.75 credit hours, 80% on the assessment — then spent time in the software until I could build genuinely interactive lessons rather than put slides on a bigger screen.
• Then I became the person people asked. I modeled it in my own instruction, sat with colleagues through their first builds, and worked through the applications alongside them rather than handing over a manual.
• Nobody assigned this. I identified the gap, closed it for myself, and then closed it for the people around me.

What I'd do differently: I never measured it. I have a note from leadership and my own sense that engagement improved, but I set no baseline — how many staff were using the boards for anything beyond projection before I started — so I can't tell you the size of the change. If I ran it again, that baseline would come first.

First-cohort curriculum implementation — EL Education

Classroom teacher and informal trainer · Wake County Public School System · 2017 – present

I was part of Wake County's first group to implement EL Education when the district adopted it in 2017. Being in the first cohort meant working out how the curriculum actually functions in a classroom without anyone ahead of me to ask.

• Eight years teaching EL, from initial adoption through every revision since.
• Show teachers new to Wake County how to read the curriculum and put it into practice — where it is prescriptive, where it leaves room, and what to do when a lesson does not land.
• Do the same for mCLASS literacy screening and DreamBox for teachers just starting in the county.
• None of this is assigned. It is the work people ask me for because I was here first.

Literacy screening and intervention

Intervention representative · White Oak Elementary

I sit on the intervention team supporting the whole student population, and I am responsible for making sure intervention is delivered for every student on my team who needs it — tracking who qualifies, what they get, and whether it is working.

• At least 15 students in intervention on my own team, within a building-wide system I help run.
• Work in mCLASS, North Carolina's required K–3 literacy screener under Read to Achieve, and train colleagues on using it.
• Turn screening data into intervention decisions, then follow up on whether those decisions moved anything.
• Coordinate across grade levels and specialists so students do not fall through the gaps between them.

Three years of virtual instruction

Virtual teacher · Wake County Public School System · 2019 – 2022

I taught remotely for three years, which meant rebuilding instruction for a delivery mode it was never designed for. Pacing, engagement, assessment and family communication all had to be redesigned rather than translated.

• Adapted district curriculum for fully online delivery and sustained it across three school years, not one emergency semester.
• Built assessment and feedback loops that worked without being in the room.
• As Virtual Academy teacher, designed fully asynchronous recorded lessons for days I knew I would be out — a five-part interactive sequence with built-in pause points for student discussion and independent work, rather than leaving plans for a substitute.

English language curriculum, built from scratch

Online educator and curriculum writer · Boluo School · 2017 – 2023

For six years, alongside full-time teaching, I designed and taught a reading and language curriculum for students in China and the United States, delivered over Zoom and Google Workspace.

• Wrote unit scope and individual lesson plans against annual skill assessments — there was no existing curriculum to work from.
• Designed for two distinct learner profiles at once: native English speakers and native or heritage Chinese speakers, who need genuinely different approaches to the same material.
• Built reading, writing and conversational English instruction for learners I only ever met on a screen, across a twelve-hour time difference.

Team leadership and new-teacher support

Former grade level chair / team lead · White Oak Elementary

I previously served as my grade level's team lead, and have continued supporting teachers new to the building since.

• Ran the weekly planning cadence — planning, assessment review, and dividing work across the grade.
• Supported three beginning teachers through their first years, on how things actually work in Wake County rather than how the handbook says they do.
• Have continued that support informally for every new teacher who has rotated onto my team since, on curriculum, policy and the intervention process.
• Coordinated grade-level field trips end to end, including budget, transportation and student safety.