Introduction: My First Blog Post

Who I Am

Welcome to my very first blog post! I'm thrilled to take this opportunity to introduce myself. As a lifelong learner, I have a strong passion for learning design, accessibility, and problem-solving. At work, I'm often the go-to person for colleagues who need a second pair of eyes on documents before they go to print or need help organizing large events with numerous moving parts. I excel at seeing the big picture while also honing in on the finer details, allowing me to anticipate potential issues before they arise.

These abilities have served me well throughout my 18 years as an educator for students in grades 4-12. Beyond teaching, I wear many hats: I'm an event coordinator, planner, recruiter, vending relations manager, consultant, writer, editor, and learning designer. All of this while managing the budget and financial aspects of running a large program and teaching hundreds of students to play instruments each year.

On a personal note, I pride myself on being kind, creative, and thoughtful. I have a deep love for animals, especially my dog, who is currently snoozing behind my chair as I write this. I enjoy laughing, cherish my friends, and I enjoy gardening and keeping house plants, though my skills to care for plants seems to be outweighed by my desire to care for them. Suggestions always welcome.

My Journey into Instructional Design

I'll be honest-when I began teaching Orchestra 18 years ago, I was convinced it would be my career until retirement. Education and music have been my passions since childhood. I come from a family of educators and educational administrators. In fact, my family was featured in a Connecticut newspaper article as the "Family That Teaches Together." (Yes, really. It's our claim to "fame"). I spent my childhood assisting my mother in her classroom during long nights of grading, planning, and copying, and I understood the hard work teaching would entail.

Several years into my career, I discovered a passion for teaching others how to teach. I began with student teachers, then mentored new hires through the Ohio Resident Educator program, and eventually facilitated professional development sessions for staff. When our district closed in 2020, we transitioned online within three days. Many teachers faced challenges with this shift, and I started hosting Zoom meetings to screen share and assist them with their Canvas courses, video creation, embedding materials, and more. This experience made me realize how much I enjoyed working with adult learners, leading me to explore Instructional Design.

I started taking on more responsibilities by developing e-learning modules and training materials for the Fine Arts staff as new initiatives, websites, and scheduling software were introduced. I found great enjoyment in this work as I recognized its value and truly enjoyed the process. I contemplated transitioning to instructional design, but I wasn't ready to make the move. I dedicated my nights, weekends, and summers to learning about learn about the ADDIE and SAM models, adult learning principles, and working on instructional design projects and trainings.

In January 2022, I was diagnosed with an Acoustic Neuroma, a rare non-cancerous brain tumor. By April of that year, I underwent brain surgery to remove the tumor, which resulted in complete deafness in my right ear. As a lifelong musician and orchestra teacher, this was devastating. Although I have made an exceptional recovery, this experience ultimately led me to realize that I could not continue in my career until retirement. The overwhelming sounds of a full day of teaching music are challenging with only one hearing ear. Juggling protecting my hearing ear from the violin while needing to hear students is also a challenge. The good news is that it doesn't affect my ability to design e-learning and facilitate training.

During this transition, I've been working on the side as a freelance Instructional Designer while actively pursuing opportunities in Learning and Curriculum Design. I'm very pleased with this decision and feel grateful that I discovered and nurtured this passion before reaching the point where I needed to make this significant life change.

What to Expect from My Blog

Project Showcases

• I plan to showcase current projects and my process, including monthly challenges from The E-Learning Designer's Academy.

Resource Sharing

• If I find a cool new tool, software, platform, or anything that excites me or helps me with my workflow, you can bet I'll be sharing it here!

Accessibility News & Thoughts

• As Accessibility is a passion of mine, I will share thoughts I have about current happenings and ways to include accessibility into e-learning and training.

I typically don't share much about my personal life online or at work, so this is likely the most you'll learn about me personally. I was brave and decided to share photos, because I believe it's important to remember that there are real people behind the words on the screen. Well, usually. Sometimes it's AI. I'm not AI. I may incorporate the use of AI to enhance work where appropriate, but I promise I'm a real human person.

Conclusion

Please feel free to connect via e-mail, LinkedIn, or comment here to stay in touch. I am always open to feedback and interesting points of view when it comes to my process and learning design, and would love to connect with more learning designers and accessibility enthusiasts!