The following is a breakdown of some of the most important pieces of professional development I have been a part of. These programs, trainings, and courses — listed from newest to oldest — have been integral to my growth and development as an educator. I have provided a brief summary of the professional development as well as an explanation of how it has grown and shaped my practice.

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AP Language and Composition Training | Novi APSI 2025

To prepare for teaching AP Language and Composition, I enrolled in a week-long course designed to give teachers the knowledge and skills required to help students succeed on the exam. The course covered AP Language and Composition big ideas, skills, and concepts. We learned how to utilize AP Classroom, what appropriate forms of assessment to give students, and how to bring materials into the class in meaningful ways. The course covered how tests are scored and best practices from our facilitator and fellow participants.

This course helped me not only understand the content of the AP Language and Composition course — including key concepts like rhetoric, exigence, and rhetorical situation — but how to teach these concepts to my students. I planned my first year of teaching AP because of this training, integrating progress checks from AP classroom and content from the new textbook directly into it. I believe this course made me a stronger educator.

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National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) Summer Seminar on Women in Asia | University of Colorado, Boulder 2024

The National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), is an organization dedicated to providing quality professional development to K-12 educators for the purpose of bringing East Asian literature, history, art, culture, and more to the classroom. Prior to spending a week on the University of Colorado, Boulder, campus in July of 2024, I received a binder of curated materials from the organizers containing readings, questions, and other resources equivalent to an intro level graduate seminar to prepare for lectures, discussions, and activities on campus. I spent a full week learning from professionals in this field, working with primary sources, and collaborating with colleagues across the United States. 

This course was instrumental to my development of my fall 2024 New Voices class. I centered the course around themes of identity, change, and understanding of East Asian culture which is part of what the seminar was based on. I pulled primary and secondary sources, borrowed guiding questions, and utilized resources created during the course of the seminar in my own class.

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Capturing Kids’ Hearts, Process Champion | Bay City Public Schools 2024

Capturing Kids’ Hearts (CKH) is a social-emotional program designed to help students reach their potential both academically and socially. The program emphasizes building relationships between staff and students, creating a building culture of collaboration, and creating self-managing classrooms. Bay City Public Schools has adopted CKH as a district-wide initiative. As a process champion, I attended training to coach other staff members on CKH processes. This could look like offering support to staff who need guidance, being a sounding board for CKH implementation, and leading CKH refreshers at staff meetings.

CKH alone helped me immensely in my first few years as a teacher. It gave me a classroom management system focused on student identity, choice, and voice: components instrumental to my practice. As a process champion, I learned more about the philosophy behind CKH and how to sustain the practices throughout the year, even when students are tired and ready for a break from school. Additionally, the opportunity to become a process champion helped me grow as a leader amongst my colleagues.

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National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) Teaching East Asia Summer Seminar | Michigan State University, 2023

This seminar served as an introduction to teaching East Asian Literature, history, culture, and art in the classroom. I read Charles Holcombe’s A History of East Asia, as well as selected poems and short stories. At the seminar, I learned from professionals in the field on areas spanning history of early civilizations to development of empires, the importance of origami, the art of calligraphy, to using manga and anime as learning tools in the classroom.

This course was my first introduction to NCTA, and I cannot be more grateful that I decided to follow up on a random district email forwarded out about the opportunity. Most of what I was taught in this seminar was adopted in some form into the first time I taught New Voices. Students adored the class, commenting on how they liked the new material. It allowed us to explore culture, history, literature, and art together.

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Chippewa River Writing Project: Remote Literacy Learning | Central Michigan University, 2020

This course was offered by the Chippewa River Writing Project (CRWP) as a response to emergency shutdowns from COVID. Educators needed quick, effective, and impactful ways to transition traditionally in-person English classrooms into digital spaces. Professors at Central Michigan University collaborated with the CRWP to bring best practices to educators across Michigan. We spent time discussing strategies, practicing implementation, and collaborating with colleagues.

As a first year teacher who had prepared exclusively for an in-person, synchronous classroom, the shift to COVID was even more stressful due to inexperience. This class was like a lifeline. I learned programs like Peardeck and methods of journaling that I still use to this day.

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Additional Work and Qualifications