Kelly Ayers works as a sixth grade teacher at Providence Elementary and has been employed with Fairfax County Public Schools since 1990. In 1998, Kelly was honored by the City of Fairfax for her outstanding contributions to teaching in the classroom. She is a Project Lead Teacher trained employee of Fairfax County Public Schools. She is currently a clinical faculty member with George Mason University’s Graduate School of Education and works with professional development students. She is an active teacher researcher who has led various action research projects at Providence Elementary since the year 2000 in affiliation with Fairfax County Teacher Research Network and George Mason University Teacher Network Leadership Institute. Findings from previous action research are published. She enjoys presenting at local and national education conferences. In 2006 Kelly was recognized by the Association of Teacher Educators-Virginia (ATE-VA) for outstanding research in a Virginia elementary school.
Anne Booth currently teaches sixth grade math and science at Westlawn ES. An active teacher researcher, she completed her doctorate at Arizona State University with a dissertation entitled, “Collaborative Inquiry: A Systems Approach to Developing Professionally.” Anne’s research interests include teacher development through action research, developing critically reflective thinking skills in teachers and students, and policy mechanisms that enhance teachers’ learning. In her spare time, Anne enjoys cycling the many trails in the Northern Virginia area with her husband, exploring local museums, and catching up on her sleep. This is Anne’s first year with TNLI.
Michelle Crabill is a School Based Technology Specialist at Kings Park Elementary School in Springfield, VA. This is her 15th year in education, 8th year participating in Teacher Research, and fourth year in TNLI. Prior to becoming a SBTS at Kings Park, she was a third grade teacher, six years in Fairfax County and six years in Maryland. Her professional accomplishments include receiving a Master's Degree in Instructional Technology, participating in Teacher Research, being a teacher mentor, and becoming a School Based Technology Specialist. Michelle loves working with teachers to enhance their instructional strategies through the use of technology. The excitement in the children’s faces is priceless. When she is not teaching or working on the computer, she enjoys spending quality time with her husband and daughters.
Sally A. Donnelly is a first year TNLI-er and embarking on her sixth year as a teacher researcher. She co-leads the Fairfax County Teacher Research Network and leads a group of 24 teacher researchers this year at Stenwood ES in Fairfax County. This begins her sixth year as a Reading Specialist for a K-6 elementary school where she enjoys teaching teachers the best practices of Language Arts. She strives to help teachers use data to drive their reading and writing instruction. Outside of school, she tries to keep up with her two brilliant daughters, a college sophomore with a passion for politics and a high school junior with a passion for theater. In her spare time, she enjoys reading children’s books and trips to Chincoteague, VA with her architect husband.
Catalina A. Figueredo completed her dissertation in Organic Chemistry in 1995, after conducting research in two Labs, one in Bucharest, Romania and the other in Marseille, France. She settled in the United States eight years ago coming from Romania, and started her fourth career, as a science teacher in Fairfax County. She became a National Board certified teacher in 2005 and she served as one of the facilitators in the district’s support seminar for National Board candidates for two years. Catalina started to conduct research in her school, and her interest was stimulated by the learning habits of her students and the articles published in the literature about the struggle of college professors to make students reflect on their work. She is very interested in understanding how to help her students to be reflective thinkers by using lab experiments, as well as how she could create effective tools to assist students to make the transition from creative thinkers to reflective thinkers.
Jocelyn Fischer is in her fifth year at Parklawn Elementary School. Jocelyn has taught two years of fifth grade, two years of fourth grade, and has just moved up to fifth with the same children. She graduated from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. Jocelyn enjoys researching behavior in children and how to develop citizenship skills. She is close to her two brothers, sister, mom and dad. She has been married for two years and lives in Alexandria with her husband, Todd and cat, Roscoe.
Marly M. Fullerton, NBCT
This is Marly’s second year with TNLI. A National Board Certified World Languages Other Than English Spanish, she works at South Lakes High School where she is the Lead Teacher for the Spanish PLC, this is her fifth year as the Teacher Research Leader for SLHS PBS research project. In addition to the PBS research project, Marly is part of SLHS School Improvement Plan Committee, SLHS/GMU Clinical Faculty Team, Sponsor of the SL Hispanic Student & Parent Association (SALSA), and an IB/MYP Teacher. Research interests include Hispanic students in high school, teacher collaboration, and strategies for student successful achievement. Marly enjoys music, movies, reading and spending time with her family.
Laura Reasoner Jones, a proud Purdue University and Syracuse University graduate, currently works as a School-Based Technology Specialist at McNair ES, Herndon VA, in Fairfax County Public Schools. Every job she has ever had has been her favorite, including working as a Preschool Home Resource Teacher, traveling around from home to home working with preschoolers with special needs, working as the Teacher in Residence at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards creating the Digital Edge Learning Interchange, and developing a county-wide project to end or lessen the digital divide in our very diverse county.
In her spare time, she makes movies of her kids at school and her two grown children. She writes for the Teacher Leader Network and also is writing a book about her great-grandfather’s life based on his journal.
Laura is really a nice person, and is not the over-achiever she writes about. She just thinks it is fun to write in this style. She has a wonderful husband and two daughters who make her crazy for different reasons. But she loves them anyway.
Katie Le is a gifted and talented resource teacher at Hunters Woods Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences in Reston, Va. In addition to working with academically advanced students, her interests include culturally responsive teaching and differentiated instruction at all elementary grade levels, and development of best practices in the primary grades. Katie and Hunters Woods reading specialist, Carol Defilippo, developed a reading enrichment program based on the Socratic Seminar Method in which parent volunteers were trained to facilitate seminars with kindergarten and first graders. Their work was published in the October 2008 edition of Educational Leadership in an article titled Little Philosophers.
Katie is a graduate of James Madison University with a BS in Sociology, and The University of Virginia where she earned an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership.
Kathleen Nealon is a National Board Certified Teacher who teaches Kindergarten at North Springfield ES in Fairfax County Public Schools. She is currently working on her doctorate degree at George Mason University. She has many research interests which include teacher education and early childhood. She enjoys reading, playing golf, and traveling. Kathy is a huge sports fan, who frequently travels back to NY to see the Yankees play.
Gail V. Ritchie, Ph. D., TNLI Advisor
This is Gail’s ninth year with TNLI. A National Board Certified Early Childhood Generalist, she recently returned to the school-level as an Instructional Coach, after two years as a Resource Teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools’ Department of Professional Learning and Training. Gail completed her doctorate with a dissertation study entitled “Teacher Research as A Habit of Mind.” Additional research interests include early literacy, differentiated learning, and early childhood development. Gail has two basketball-crazy sons (one played for Virginia Tech), and one very spoiled cat. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, music, and watching videos.
Deborah Q. Seidel, Ed.M, currently teaches third grade general education. This is her 12th year teaching. Her experience includes five years of teaching kindergarten, one year of fourth grade, and seven years of third grade. She earned a B.S. in Business Management from Virginia Tech and an Ed. M. in Early Childhood and Elementary Education with a specialization in language and literacy from Rutgers University. Before becoming a teacher, she was a project manager for a small health care communications company. Debbie has been active in Teacher Research in Fairfax County for seven years, six of which she has led groups, including starting the Union Mill Elementary School Teacher Research Group and a cooperative group with Union Mill Elementary and Deer Park Elementary School. Her research focuses have centered around age and developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood and elementary teaching as well as the impact of teacher collaboration on her teaching and student learning.
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