Hello, I'm Mrs. B. 

My 37-year career in education continues to provide me with unique opportunities to serve in various roles, including elementary classroom teacher, district Language Arts consultant, ”Integrated Learning” consultant at a national level and for the past 12 years, district Data Specialist and most recently, Web Designer and Course Creator.   I have a Master of Arts in teaching and had the honor of receiving the WDIV Elementary “Teacher of the Year” award in 1995. 

The passion that has followed me throughout my career is a deep desire to learn about the brain and especially, understanding the mechanisms in our brain that allow us to learn to read.  Seeing students struggle with reading, despite great efforts to help them, still drives that passion today.  

When the Science of Reading revealed the critical role that phonemic awareness plays in reading and the need for extended practice for many struggling readers, I wanted to find a way to help those students.  I was Inspired by the work of Dr. David Kilpatrick and for the past two years I have been developing “Sound-Mappers” Activities*; a series of video-based lessons, designed to support phonemic awareness proficiency for students in 3rd grade and above. 

*The idea for the “Sound Mappers” name originated from reading Chapter 4 in Equipped for Reading Success and understanding that it is only when sounds are firmly embedded in the brain that corresponding letters can bond with them for immediate, effortless recognition by the reader.  When this immediate connection happens, we say the sounds and letters have been “mapped”.