The past five years have been a steady incline of accomplishments in my professional life. I began working for Montclair High School in 2011 as a job coach in the Transition Program. Within this capacity I realized my career path should be in education. I enrolled in a post baccalaureate certification program to become certified to teach elementary school. During my graduate study I maintained a strong GPA and received my K-6 certification in two years (four semesters). This past year I accepted a job in Rutherford, NJ as the Gifted and Talented/Keyboarding teacher. Since I received my bachelor's degree in Humanities, I had enough credit requirements to apply for the middle school Social Studies and English Language Arts endorsements upon passing the Praxis exam for both subjects, which I did.
Being a musician has taught me many valuable lessons which make me an outstanding teacher. In order to be a successful musician one must be patient, intelligent, diligent, meticulous, and good at multi-tasking. Not only am I a musician, but I have played in several bands since I was thirteen years old. Being a part of a band requires one to be a productive team member, creative, responsible, committed, and passionate. When my fingers were bleeding from playing the guitar for six hours straight, while trying to play a riff just right, I learned how to believe in myself and trust that my hard work and dedication will prevail. When I had worked a forty hour work week and had to drive three hours to play an overnight, weekend show, it took passion, commitment, and dedication to show up for my band mates, ready to play and enjoy every second of it. As a teacher, when I am presented with a challenge, I believe in my abilities to problem solve, my experience with working cooperatively with others to find a solution, and my passion for succeeding; all of which I have developed as a musician over the past sixteen years.