About Me

My husband (Dusti) and I moved to Kansas from Beijing, China (where we both taught at an International School) after he was offered a full time position in the Instructional Design and Technology Department at ESU. A year later I started teaching part time for the university. 
 
We have three teenagers, ages 15, 17 and 19. Our oldest daughter is a Sophomore at ESU this year (we are getting old) and our youngest is a Sophomore in high school. We feel very blessed to have three great kids!
We love to travel (have been to 40+ countries), camp, canoe, and spend time as a family. I enjoy running, hiking, swimming, snow skiing, working out, and reading.
 
I am teaching the "Teaching Online" and "Instructional Technology for Educators" courses this semester. I believe I have a very unique perspective regarding online teaching and educational uses of technology as I have taught an online class for over a decade, have taken online courses, served as an online facilitator (fancy word for home-school parent) when we traveled overseas, and two of my children attended a Charter School that was partially taught through online courses for two years. After we returned from our overseas Sabbatical in Thailand, my youngest son loved the online history and science courses so much that I continued to homeschool him half time. He attended the local elementary school the other half. We think it paid off because he won the geography bee for Emporia Middle School and went on to compete in the state competition. 
 
Dusti and I have taught one of the first online courses on campus, Powerful Presentations in PowerPoint, and published a series of books for educators on Microsoft Office applications through Sage publishing. We've written several books together on more exciting topics such as study skills, creating eStories. and learning vocabulary with cartoons :) I've also taught for several years in the public school system and have had experience teaching every grade level when I worked as a substitute teacher while I was earning my teaching credential/license. 
 
I look forward to getting to know all of you throughout the semester!