About+Me

===Updated October 2, 2010  I was born in Columbus, Mississippi and attended New Hope School. The teachers I had during this formative time helped to inspire me to become a teacher myself. I married Tommy Younger, on August 19 after I graduated from high school, turned 18 six days later and started college at Mississippi University for Women a few days later. I originally planned on studying accounting, but after my first semester, something clicked!! I had a professor who was able to put everything in Algebra into perspective and I knew then I wanted to be a high school math teacher! I graduated in the Fall of 1992 in just 3 1/2 years and began to substitute throughout the remainder of the school year in various schools in the surrounding area. ===

===Considering I am not a test-taker and got my degree in mathematics in lieu of math education, I had trouble passing the exam to earn my certification to teach. In the summer of '93, I took a job working with Weyerhaeuser during their construction phase of CMF as the purchasing assistant working closely with the Engineers. Since I was having trouble passing the teacher's exam (missing it by 1-2 points each time) and since the Lord had not blessed me and Tommy with children yet I felt the Lord may have been telling me to pursue other career opportunities. After being encouraged by the engineers I was working with, I decided to enter the engineering program at Mississippi State University. When I went to get my immunizations in order to complete the enrollment process, I found out I was pregnant with Cole. === ===I decided to attend State through the Spring Semester of 1994 while continuing to work at Weyerhaeuser until the project was completed on July 27th. The very next day Cole was born (and Grace 3 years later). It was amazing to me to see God's plan for my life unfold so perfectly. After much prayer, I decided to return to the W and audit the class needed to help me pass the teacher's exam in December that year. I was so excited to hear I had passed! In January of '95, I took a long-term substitute position at Columbus High School after a teacher had to be transferred to California via the military. This was a great opportunity for me to learn the ropes of a full-time high school teacher under the wings of some excellent mentoring teachers. === ===At the end of that year I accepted a job at Hunt Middle School where I taught Title I math to 7th graders for one year then to New Hope Middle School teaching 7th grade math and Pre-Algebra for the next 7 years. I am now teaching in the high school, where I have been teaching Algebra II, honors and regular Geometry until this year (2010-11). Honors Geometry is now weighed and referred to as Pre-AP Geometry and I been assigned to teach Algebra I in lieu of Algebra II. I couldn't be happier! My son is a junior in the high school and it is a complete joy to get to see him throughout the day. My daughter (my "mini-me") is in 8th grade and will join me in the high school next year. I thank God for each day I have been given the opportunity to be a teacher and pray that I am an inspiration to my students as they have been such a blessing to me. I work very hard to make math look easy and fun! I tell them all the time that if I am bored - I know they are! So I am continuously looking for and learning new ways to make learning geometry and algebra fun and easier for my students. After attending my first technology conference in the summer of 2006 and putting into practice several of the things I learned, I am now in the process of teaching other teachers how to incorporate some of the Web 2.0 tools into their classrooms to better prepare our students for the 21st century. I have also written several grants to provide technology for our students, which has in turn inspired our district to purchase more. I received my National Board certication in November 2008 and am encouraging other teachers to do the same. I am presently working diligently on my master's degree in Instructional Leadership.  ===

My Family with my brothers family & our parents - God has blessed us in many ways!