My mother tells me I liked looking at books even as an infant and maybe that is why I chose to become a teacher and librarian.
I was raised in Everett, Washington and come from a very large extended Norwegian farm family from Stanwood. I graduated from Everett High School where there were almost 600 students in my class and from WSU in 1971, so I made it through the turbulent Vietnam protest era.
I began my education career teaching third grade in Snohomish and even though I was at a brand new school, we still used blackboards and chalk, ditto machines and had no specialists. After three years of teaching at Machias Elementary School, I moved to Schwabisch Gmund, Germany where I taught Army children in grades two, three and six for the Department of Defense Schools. I loved living in Europe for four years, but returned to the USA to attend graduate school at the University of Southern California where I received my masters degree.
In 1981, I returned to the Seattle area to work for the Lake Washington School District as the teacher-librarian in the old Redmond Elementary building. After eight years there, I transferred to Smith Elementary on the Plateau where I first began using the electronic card catalog (1989). I later moved to Lakeview Elementary to be closer to home (Houghton) and gladly gave up the long commute.
I have been an educator for 34 years and will finish my career at Lakeview. I still love books and reading and I have tried to make the library at Lakeview an inviting place with a good collection of books. I enjoy reading, traveling, snow skiing, college football games, my morning latte, and helping my mother, who celebrated her 90th birthday this summer.
Reader’s Rock!!