About Mel and Gerdy

Finding the time to create engaging and entertaining lessons is virtually impossible in today's classroom. Teachers, especially those in math and science, are inundated with constantly changing standards and curriculum. Additionally, resources that are out there for middle school sciences are often dry and lackluster. That's where we come in.

We love biology. We love biology so much that we decided to teach it. And, we're darn good at it.   We're two middle school life science teachers with a true passion for lesson planning. We collaborate daily about lessons that we know will grab our students' attention. We know they work because our students love our lessons. We know they work because our test scores show it. Over the last four years, our curriculum has brought home the bacon to the note of over 60% of our kids exceeding state standards, and less than 10% missing the mark.   And... we think that's pretty darn good.  

Hi, I'm Gerdy.  I've been teaching Life Science for ten years in Alabama and Georgia.   As a Wildlife biology grad of Auburn University I wondered what my degree would bring me in the real world.  My sister, a fellow educator, told me I'd make a great teacher.  Within weeks of her simple advice, I entered into Auburn's graduate program and received a M.Ed. in Secondary Biology in 2002.  I have been teaching 7th Grade Life Science for 10 years and love the age group and especially the curriculum.  Around my fourth year teaching I got into a funk and found that I was always on the hunt for new ways to engage my students.  Fellow teachers didn't share much, there wasn't a whole lot on the internet, and I was left having to create everything from scratch.  This work was time consuming and exhausting as I was going at the job alone.  However, in 2008 I had a life changing experience.  A student teacher entered my classroom and turned my world as an educator upside down.  Old ideas seemed new again.  New ideas were transformed into inquiry based activities.  I found inspiration and excitement in lesson planning again.  Enter Mel!!
  

Hi, I'm Mel. The call to teaching science never really happened for me as it does for others. I can remember playing “teacher” in my neighbor’s garage when I was a child, creating tests and instructing the kids of my neighborhood in the ways of English and science. Mostly though, I remember being inspired by the actual workings of the world. The wonders of the biological world have always fascinated me, but the idea of teaching them has not.  After graduating from Kennesaw with a Bachelor’s degree in biology, I ran the gamut on jobs, ranging from lifeguard, telemarketer, restaurant manager, Executive assistant, veterinary technician, and mechanic, to artist, cook, substitute teacher, wrecker driver, accountant, receptionist, and restaurant server. With each job, I reached my full potential rather quickly and unfortunately became unchallenged. With no prospect of upward mobility in most of these corporate jobs, “burn out” was a phrase that resonated with my vocabulary. After I left my most recent job in 2005, I began soul searching for the answer to my employment woes. Most people look for their “dream” job - that elusive place where people actually like to go at five a.m. For me, that place was hardly defined.  In 2008, I took a student teaching assignment at a middle school in Atlanta.  Within minutes of meeting Gerdy, I knew I had not only found an incredible mentor, but a lifelong friend.  We truly collaborate on a daily basis, bouncing ideas off of one another, and create lessons that engage and excite our students.  We love the creative aspect of being teachers, and now we're excited to share our passion with each of you!