ssarra Profile

I live with my husband, Keith, 2 cats, Precious and Bullinkle, and two cocker spaniels, Brandy and Vincent van Dogg. We live in the Portland, Oregon area right at the beginning of the Columbia Gorge (carved out of the mountains 1000's of years ago by the Columbia river, which now flows right beside the Columbia Gorge. I am a retired English/Language Arts teacher. I taught grades K-8 for 21 years, and then became the Student Management Specialist (Disciplainarian) for the last 2 years of my Education Career. I loved teaching, especially the teaching of writing. There was nothing more exciting than watching a student who had always hated writing suddenly begin to enjoy the writing process and the joy it could bring you! I also delighted in encouraging the natural writers to work to their highest potential. Over the years, to encourage and support my students' writing, I created a series of stories about the "Bona Vist Lane Kids", Sara and her friends, Bonnie and MaryTom, and the adventures they plan and attempt to carry out (non of them exactly very good choices) and the end result when Cissy, Sara's pesky, tag-along, tattle tale little sister ruins the adventures for them and ALWAYS lands the older girls in serious trouble. My students loved these stories and used them as springboards for their own writing (which was exactly my goal). The stories are now in the middle of the publication process, spurred on by students (grown-up now and wanting the stories for their children!) Writing has always been a great love of mine, and so, finally, now retired, I actually have the time to dabble at it as much as I would like to and I do!!!