Twenty-six years as a special education teacher, rooted in Montessori, certified in Orton-Gillingham. Calm Creek is what I'm building now — one-on-one tutoring in Red Wing and River Falls, and an online community for parents from anywhere.
For kids who learn a little differently, and for the parents who've been looking for someone who gets it.
In-person, in Red Wing and River Falls. Reading, writing, math, and the pieces that hold it all together.
Learn more →An online space for parents navigating this territory from anywhere. Weekly AMAs, a resource library, and real conversation.
Learn more →Twenty-six years as a teacher. Trained in special education, rooted in Montessori, certified in Orton-Gillingham.
Read more →Parents of kids with a diagnosis — dyslexia, ADHD, autism, a 2e profile, a specific learning disability. And parents of kids without one, who still know something's going on.
Local families who want someone in the room with their kid. Families from across the country who want a teacher in their corner from anywhere.
If you've been looking for a different way in, you're in the right place.
I've been a special education teacher for twenty-six years. Classrooms from preschool through high school. Most recently in Montessori, where I finally found my way back to the work I'd started in.
I've sat on the school side of hundreds of IEP meetings. I've watched a lot of kids get moved through systems that weren't built for them. And I've watched what happens when a kid finally gets met where they are.
Calm Creek is the practice I wish more of my students had access to — careful, whole-child, and grounded in what the research actually says about how kids learn.
For about thirty years, most American elementary schools taught reading in a way that didn't actually teach most kids to read. Instead of sounding words out, kids were taught to guess — using pictures, context, the first letter of a word.
It didn't work. Especially not for kids with dyslexia, and not for kids with any kind of language-based learning difference. The research has been clear on this for decades. The classrooms took longer to catch up.
If you're reading this because your fourth grader still guesses at words, you're not alone. You're not overreacting. And there's a real way forward. It's called structured literacy, and it's what I do.
The original structured-literacy approach, for kids whose brains learn to read differently.
Licensed in special education, with 26 years across preschool through high school.
Grounded in how kids actually learn — with their hands, their bodies, and their senses.
Guessing at words past first grade isn't a child problem. It's a teaching problem.
Read → MeltdownsWhat's really happening in the first twenty minutes after pickup — and why it's a good sign.
Read → EssayLazy is usually what we call effort we can't see.
Read →Not sure yet? Explore the Resources library →
Or book a discovery call — fifteen minutes, no pressure.