Profile
Twenty-five years designing English language arts instruction, now building the tools that deliver it. Curriculum and assessment architecture across secondary and post-secondary settings, writing center administration at two universities, adjunct faculty training at the community-college system level, and editorial work for an academic press. Current focus: standards infrastructure, genre and multilingual literacy tools, and AI-assisted instructional content development — shipped, not theorized.
Education
M.A., English — Sam Houston State University
B.A., English — Sam Houston State University (minor: Philosophy)
Coursework: Renaissance & 20th-century literature, literary criticism & theory, English linguistics, Shakespeare, classical & medieval philosophy
Certification & Licensure
Texas Classroom Teacher — English Language Arts and Reading, Grades 7–12 (Standard, SBEC)
Texas Classroom Teacher — English as a Second Language Supplemental, Grades 7–12 (Standard, SBEC)
College Reading & Learning Association — Master Level tutor certification (cross-age literacy)
Academic & Administrative Appointments
Program Manager III + Adjunct Faculty — Lone Star College–CyFair
2013 – 2015
- Designed and ran adjunct faculty onboarding for the CyFair campus (~1,000 adjuncts), coordinating a two-week multi-department training sequence
- Administered TurnItIn and Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning) at campus level — course assignment, completion tracking, usage reporting
- Taught Freshman Composition I in hybrid delivery (live + asynchronous)
Assistant Director, University Writing Center — Texas A&M University
2007 – 2012
- Designed and taught the credit-bearing tutor-preparation pedagogy course the full staff worked from; ran 5+ years across live, asynchronous, and observation-based modes
- Built and owned the master tutoring schedule across two campus locations for a staff of 15–20 undergraduate and graduate tutors
- Served on the development committee for CLEO, an open-source tutoring scheduling and document-management platform — translated tutor workflows into feature specifications with engineering
- Multi-year collaboration with the Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering on writing-assessment calibration for a W-designated course
- Manuscript reviewer, The Writing Lab Newsletter (2008–2009)
Assistant Director, Writing Center — Sam Houston State University
2005 – 2007
- Interviewed and hired undergraduate and graduate tutors; built weekly staffing schedules
- Built the tutor onboarding cycle: observation, calibration, and end-of-semester portfolio review
- Created training materials for tutors serving writers from developmental through post-doctoral levels
- Designed Talk Time, a conversation-partner program pairing international students (primarily Korean) with Writing Center staff for English practice — the only secular program of its kind at the university
Secondary Teaching Appointments
ELAR Instructor — Middle College at HCC Gulfton, Houston ISD
2025 – 2026
- Developed TEKS-aligned warm-ups, lessons, and assessments for English I in an ESL-majority environment
- Built scaffolded writing prompts and reading guides adapted for emergent bilingual learners
- Designed an AP Course Audit–compliant AP English Language and Composition course: a 7-unit, 28-week scope and sequence dual-aligned to College Board Big Ideas and Essential Skills and to Texas ELA TEKS, with weighted assessment architecture and an AP 9-point rubric conversion table
ELA Instructor — Westbury High School (NES campus), Houston ISD
2019 – 2025
- Designed and implemented English I, English II, English III, and Reading III curriculum aligned to STAAR redesign standards; campus rating improved D → B during tenure
- Taught fully online for the COVID closure — roughly three semesters of full-time virtual secondary English instruction via Microsoft Teams, Nearpod, Kahoot, and Canva, followed by concurrent in-person/remote sections through phased reopening; supported colleagues' transition to online instruction
- Built and taught a full-year Graphic Novels elective (English IV) covering Watchmen, Maus, Persepolis, and American Born Chinese; authored the diagnostic and vocabulary materials and managed parent content disclosure and opt-out for mature texts
- Delivered Texas College Bridge (TEA/Texas OnCourse) online college-readiness instruction
- T-TESS rating: Proficient
ELA Instructor — Houston Can Academy, Hobby & Southwest campuses (Texans Can Academies)
2015 – 2019
- Part of a team effort that produced substantial gains in English I and English II EOC pass rates through targeted content development
- Created differentiated materials and online credit-recovery instruction for over-age/under-credit students
- Wrote assessment items, essay prompts, and warm-up sequences aligned to TEKS and STAAR blueprints
Post-Secondary Teaching
Lone Star College System — Freshman Composition I (ENGL 1301), hybrid and face-to-face; three sections documented Spring 2014
Texas A&M University — credit-bearing tutor-preparation pedagogy course
Sam Houston State University — Freshman Composition, Literature, TOEFL preparation, and state-mandated developmental writing under the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP)
Conference Presentations
- “Calibrating Rubrics in Writing.” Teaching & Learning Symposium, Lone Star College–CyFair, 2013.
- With C. Schaefer, V. Balester, and S. Leary. “Providing Writing Assistance Online to All Students.” Texas Distance Learning Association Conference, San Antonio, TX, 2012.
- With S. Searcy, C. Munster, C. Schaefer, and V. Balester. “Designing Assessment Methods for a W Course in Agricultural Systems Management: Successes and Failures.” Texas A&M Assessment Conference, College Station, TX, 2011.
- With M. Gilchrist, K. Abels, D. Bennett, S. Grogan, and T. Conard-Salvo. “Making Innovation Public: Resources for DIY, Modification, and Sharing of Writing Center Technologies.” Computers and Writing Conference, Ann Arbor, MI, 2011.
- With A. Mitchell. “Pirates vs. Ninjas: Two Styles of Teaching.” Academic Peer Educator Conference, College Station, TX, 2011.
- With C. Schaefer. “Using TurnItIn to Teach Source Integration.” Teaching with Technology Conference, Texas A&M University, 2011.
- With M. Gilchrist, K. Abels, T. Adkins, D. Bennett, S. Grogan, and T. Conard-Salvo. “Navigating Technology and Innovation in Writing Centers.” International Writing Centers Association Conference, Baltimore, MD, 2010.
- With M. Droz. “Through Mazes Running: The Hidden Soul of Harmony — Diversity within the TAMU Writing Center.” South Central Writing Centers Association Conference, Lake Charles, LA, 2010.
- With M. Wall and J. Dortch. “The Role of Technology in Peer Education.” Academic Peer Educator Conference, College Station, TX, 2010.
- With C. Schaefer and S. Leary. “Developing a Scheduling/Reporting Tool.” Teaching with Technology Conference, Texas A&M University, 2010.
- “Web 2.0: Tools for Peer Educators.” Academic Peer Educator Conference, College Station, TX, 2009.
- With M. Wall and M. Crawford. “Write Out Loud with Podcasts.” South Central Writing Centers Association Conference, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, March 2008. Hands-on workshop; podcasts recorded live in session.
- With V. Balester, C. Schaefer, and S. Leary. “Tutoring Online: The University Writing Center’s Online Writing Lab.” Teaching with Technology Conference, Texas A&M University, February 2008.
- With D. Dowdey and M. Crawford Fennessy. “Teacher or Editor? Tutor Identity Negotiation in the Writing Center.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York, NY, March 2007.
- With J. Ewing and S. Sweeten. “Putting Plato and Aristotle to Work.” International Writing Centers Association Conference, Houston, TX, April 2007.
- With B. Jones and G. Greene. “Tutors to Teachers.” College English Association Conference, San Antonio, TX, April 2006.
- With B. Jones, G. Greene, and K. Nelson. “Tutors to Teachers.” South Central Writing Centers Association Conference, Little Rock, AR, February 2006.
- With P. Williams and L. Golden. “The Five W’s and H: Recruiting, Selecting, and Training Consultants.” College Academic Support Programs Conference, Houston, TX, 2001.
Editorial & Publishing
Texas Review Press (TRP: The University Press of SHSU) — Assistant to the Editor under Dr. Paul Ruffin; manuscript editing, proofreading, and production for an academic literary press
The Writing Lab Newsletter — Manuscript reviewer
SHSU WAC Newsletter — Production Editor
Curriculum, Digital & AI Projects
TEKS Curriculum Library — independent project, self-built in React, 2025–present
- Complete standards-aligned reference covering all 278 English I–IV student expectations (19 TAC Ch. 110, Subch. C) — English I (72), II (68), III (69), IV (69). View the live glossary →
- Each entry carries a plain-language overview, a student-facing translation, 10+ STAAR-phrased question stems, vertical alignment to prior and next grade, and common misconceptions
- Tagged by DOK level, Bloom's taxonomy, cadence, and instructional strand
The Genre Machine — independent project, shipped 2026
- Four fairy tales retold through forty-one genre lenses — 164 complete retellings of the same unchanging plot, including obscure forms (ergodic, slipstream, Bangsian), each with its characteristics, sample titles, and a brief history. View the live site →
- Every retelling carries its own voice narration, original score, and illustration, with the complete set available in Spanish as well as English
- Built on a four-lens model of genre — setting and world building, tone and atmosphere, character traits and motivation, and language and syntax. The plot never moves, so the genre shift itself does the teaching
- Designed, built, and deployed solo; released free under CC BY-NC-SA with no login required
“STAAR Trek” — Gamified Mastery Unit with AI-Generated Media — English III, ~110 students, Feb–Mar 2023
- Full gamified STAAR-mastery unit with scripted, AI-voiced narrative video, per-student identity media, physical collectible rewards, and a quantitatively modeled reward economy sized across 110 students and 15 earning opportunities
- Produced roughly twelve weeks after the public release of ChatGPT; iterated the following semester into a competitive clan-based mastery system
Kaizen Vault — production AI workflow, 2025–present
- Claude Code plus MCP servers (Obsidian, filesystem, Gmail, Calendar) running a 19,000+ document archive with searchable retrieval and custom document-processing scripts
- Daily AI-assisted instructional content workflow, designed FERPA-aware
Professional Development
Houston ISD inaugural AI Cohort — AI/LLM applications in K–12 instruction; led roughly half the sessions
College Board AP training — English Language and Composition, AP Seminar, AP Research
Adjunct Certification Program — Lone Star College
Diversity Training Institute Certified — Texas A&M University
Skills
eLearning authoring: Articulate Storyline|Articulate Engage|Adobe Captivate|iSpring|Camtasia|H5P|SCORM
AI & technical: AI/LLM prompt design|RAG workflows|Claude Code + MCP servers|local model and voice generation|FERPA-aware AI workflow design|React
LMS & platforms: Canvas|Blackboard|PowerSchool|Google Classroom|Microsoft Teams|TurnItIn|Nearpod|Socrative|Kahoot|Canva
Instructional: Curriculum and scope-and-sequence design|syllabus authoring|standards alignment (TEKS, College Board)|rubric design and calibration|assessment item writing|STAAR/EOC data analysis|RtI/MTSS|ESL and emergent bilingual strategies|developmental writing|credit recovery|tutor-training pedagogy|Socratic discussion facilitation|close reading and rhetorical analysis
Languages: English (native)|Spanish (basic)
Professional Memberships
National Council of Teachers of English|International Writing Centers Association|College Reading & Learning Association|Houston Federation of Teachers|Sigma Tau Delta