Renee has her Masters degree in special education through the University of the Pacific and an Educational Leadership Certificate through Buffalo State University. She completed her E-Learning and Online Teaching Graduate Certificate through the University of Wisconsin Stout. She is also a Google Certified Teacher (New York 2012) and regularly presents at various conferences around the world including the first Google Teacher Summit in Santa Clara, California, Bangkok's NESA (Near East South Asia) conference, and the Middle East’s first Google Summit in Dubai. She is also a charter member of Tokyo’s chapter of Phi Delta Kappa and has taught courses in educational assessment for Seattle University.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Renee has over 30 years of teaching experience, most of these in international schools. Currently, she is a STEAM Coordinator for the American School of Dubai's Elementary School. In this position, she manages the school's maker space and mobile carts and coaches teachers as they infuse Maker and Innovation Mindset into their teaching. She has taught students in kindergarten through adults and is passionate about teaching writing, technology, innovation and online learning. Since the Fall of 2014, she has been teaching the 6 Traits of Writing Course for UW Stout. She has been using 6 Traits of Writing for well over a decade and finds that this model consistently enhances writing instruction, identifies qualities of good writing, and deepens feedback. Also, Renee has presented teacher training and parent talks on this topic. In her ‘spare’ time she has coordinated five student volunteer groups for International Habitat for Humanity and has traveled to over 80 countries.
