Read my activism bio here.
I live in Utah and am originally from Maryland. I am married to a wonderful man, Tom King, and we do almost everything together! We have four grown children and seven grandchildren!
I was born in 1959 in Frederick, MD and grew up in Middletown, MD, a small “home town” community, where everyone knew everyone. I enjoyed my family (parents, two brothers and one sister I am the eldest]), going to school, and friends. I was very involved in the music programs in high school, which ultimately led to my pursuit of a degree in music education.
After I graduated from Middletown High School in 1977, I attended Western Maryland College (now known as McDaniel College) in Westminster, MD. Those four years really broadened my perspective on the world and were some of the best years of my young adulthood, offering me numerous opportunities to learn and expriences places, people and other things beyond anything I ever imagined. I majored in music (doubling in piano and voice) and graduated with a B.A. in Music Education in 1981. To this day I remain in contact with many high school and college friends.
I have spent my professional life in public education since 1983. I got my first teaching position in the fall of 1982 in Frederick County Public Schools, teaching music part time in the middle school in my hometown with many of the teachers who had taught me! It was so hard to get used to them actually being my colleagues – and on a first name basis. Over the next few years I taught there and was able to add another school part time to be teaching full time. Eventually I was transferred to Governor Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick and I taught there for 10 years with half my position teacheing piano to music concentrators in the Visual and Performing Arts Program(affectionately known as “VPA”) and the other half teaching piano to the general high school population. My classroom was an awesome piano lab with two acoustic sound modules with acoustic pianos in them. Those 10 years were among the best years in my teaching career. I adored the staff, the administration, my students, my fellow music and arts colleagues. I still have dreams of my years teaching there. During that time I also attended grad schools and earned my M.S in curriculum and instruction.
in the middle of my career I found myself moving to Utah with my three children and eventually found a teaching position….but not in music. Music positions in Utah were few and far between! So I got hired as a special education teacher and worked a fast track program to obtain my license in special ed (while teaching full time!). Over the next decade I taught music and sped classes in math, language arts and study skills to students with disabilities in middle and high school at a few different schools. I was able to secure a position at a local public charter school and from 2003-2015 I taught and was the special ed director. During that time, in 2011, I entered another masters program at Utah State University and while working full time earned a M.Ed. in special ed secondary transition. My research from my masters thesis was eventually published in a well known journal for professionals.
Since the summer of 2015, I have been spending the remainder of my career in professional development and technical assistance to teachers across the state to help them improve outcomes for students. I also provide presentations at various state and national conferences.
Together Tom and I formed the non-profit organization, Blue Sky Institute which is dedicated to education of issues in sustainability, peace and social justice, the arts and technology.
I love spending time with my family, playing piano, writing, photography, crocheting, sewing, hiking and camping (to name a few things!). I try to write on a variety of topics ranging from personal to political. Sometimes life gets “in the way” of posting, and that’s o.k.!
Read my Activism Bio here
Quotes
“Life is what happens while you are making other plans.” ~ John Lennon, 1940-1980
“We only have One Water, One Air, One Mother Earth.” ~ Corbin Harney, Western Shoshone Spiritual Leader, 1920-2007
“Be Kind~Be Connected~Be Unafraid”-Rivera Sun
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” ~ Leona Horne, 1917-2010
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 