As teacher
In my professional career, I'm proudest that I was a classroom teacher for eleven years. In my opinion, there's not a nobler profession! My first year was my toughest-a high school English teacher in an inner city school. The kids were great to me, but I found the role overwhelming-completing paperwork for administrators, grading papers for hours at night, designing lesson plans that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, etc., etc.,… Why do we come back for a second year? Because we love children…and because some of us feel that we were born to teach. I hung in there! And, yes, I'm glad that I did! I've taught all ages of children either in regular classroom settings or in university labs and clinics. Every grade and age has offered a unique adventure!

Oh, the Places You Will Go!

As consultant
For 9 years, I worked with the SC Department of Education as a language arts consultant. My assignment for most of those years was to work alongside teachers in classrooms of districts that were struggling in my state. That's where I helped teachers pilot 4-Blocks in the mid-nineties.

I left SCDOE in January of 1999 to become a fulltime freelance consultant-or a 4-Blocks missionary, as I like to think of it! Right now I'm enjoying traveling around the US-and Europe-helping schools and districts learn more about 4-Blocks. What a grand journey it has been to meet such wonderful folks everywhere I go!

As wife, mother, and grandma…
How many of you married ladies who are reading this have husbands who cook dinner on a regular basis (sometimes gourmet!), clean house, grow herb and flower gardens, and iron their own clothes? I've got a wonderful husband who does all of the above! I know how lucky I am! I could not consult around the country like I do without the support of my husband, Ray. He's truly the "wind beneath my wings" who keeps me going. As his "real" job, he's a preservationist and historian and is managing a project in SC right now to develop a heritage corridor to invite visitors to come to lesser-known but historically significant areas of our state

I've been blessed with three wonderful daughters-all, I might add, born in alphabetical order! Ashley is my oldest. She's married, lives in Charleston, SC, is a partner in Akers, Ellis, & Truluck Real Estate, and is married to Chuck. What a great son-in-law he is! Ashley and Chuck are the parents of my grandchildren, Meg and Charles, both of whom I'll tell you about below.

Beth, my middle daughter, graduated from The College of Charleston with a degree in Anthropology and from the USC Culinary Institute with a degree in Culinary Arts. She's now a Personal Chef with her own company, Timeless Taste, in Greenville, SC.








And, third in the pecking order is Caroline. You might have read about her in one of my Teachers.net articles entitled, Caroline, Community and Columbine. She's my child who has given me the passion for the consulting I do because of the different experiences she had in school and her different outlook on life. Caroline is in school at The College of Charleston, working hard towards a degree. She writes beautiful poetry, works in a restaurant, loves animals of all kinds, and is enjoying the unique culture of coastal living.

At ages 5 and 7, they are active children with interests in soccer, swimming, tennis, snow skiiing and other sports. Next school year, they'll be in kindergarten and 2nd grade. My how time flies!




Here's Ellie Wakefield Truluck, one of my grand-dogs. She loves to listen to Meg read. See how attentively she sits and listens? I think we're going to have the world's first reading dog soon!

Pets in my household:
Presently, we're down to one cat named Circe. She's a pretty black and white cat my youngest daughter rescued about 8 years ago. We had a beautiful blonde Cocker Spaniel named Mazie for many years, but lost her a couple of years ago. We still miss her! They get to be like family members, don't they?

Trivia Would you believe that I…

  • Saw Elvis three times in concert before his demise!
  • Spent my 50th birthday celebrating with friends in Eddie Rabbit's house on the beach at Kiawah!
  • Spent a great deal of time backpacking trails on the Eastern coast (but haven't had the time or inclination in a few years now!)
  • Love Cheetos (puffs, XO's, and crunchy-all good!).
  • Am a Buffet parrothead! Just love his music! I don't know how I would ever drive long distances without Jimmy traveling along with me-by CD, of course!
  • Cried the first time I saw the Grand Canyon-it was so awesome!
  • Am a castle-freak (just went wild seeing the great castles of Germany last fall!)
  • Have a fear of heights-but love flying! (Isn't that odd?)
  • Was once an Estecean. (STC-studied Samuel Taylor Coleridge with a group of others who all had fellowships).
  • Love books about medieval times, especially the Arthurian Legend. Mists of Avalon, which I read for the first time many years ago, is my all-time favorite. Another of my old favorites is Pillars of the Earth. What a story! One of my favorite writers is a Southern writer (imagine that!)-Pat Conroy. Prince of Tides (the book was sooo much better than the movie!) and Beach Music by Conroy are two examples of great writing-fantastic stories and poetic prose-just extraordinary!