I am a teacher by mission, by calling, and simply because of the love of reaching into the hearts and minds of children.  I taught elementary school in the inner city in San Bernardino, California at one of the lowest schools socioeconomically in the state.  We had 100% of our students on free breakfast and free lunch, and it was a tough, tough environment. Because I craved more skills and information about teaching my darling 4th graders, I began my Master's degree in Education, and then went on to get my Ph.D.  It was really about the students, but there was a wee, tiny little part of me that wanted to hear this introduction one day:  "This is Dr. Griffis and her husband, Mr. Griffis."  Once I had my Ph.D., however, I realized that I was the same normal person I always was - to my kids I was, "Mom, when's dinner?" and to my husband I was, "Sweetie, we need bananas and apples at the store." And this was perfectly okay with me!  I stepped out of the classroom 4 years ago because my own dear children were in junior high and they needed me to be an at-home mom.  While they were at school (they homeschooled half their days and went half-days to public school) I started my online writing tutoring corporation and taught online at a major midwestern university.  But once the kiddos were at home - I was just mom and my husband's wife.  And "Just Mom and My Husband's Wife" is the proudest, most honorable title I have ever held. But - children grow up as children do.  My son graduated from high school this year (2008), and my daughter will be entering her 12th grade year and they need me less and less.  My fondest desire is to found a public charter school for inner city children, and this is my vision, dream, and goal.  Now that my own children are almost up and out, I can focus upon this dream. In the meantime, I noticed that MANY people want to cram everything into every moment of every day and they are frantic, frazzled, and are frankly grouchy.  I wrote a book called, The Power of Three:  Managing Life in a Hectic World to address the craziness that I see all around me.  My hope is that I can help people find balance in their lives - and help them specialize in their mission so that they do whatever it is that is their own personal calling, mission, and dream and do it very well. I have three other non-fiction books that I'm virtually finished with, and several fiction books that are dusty and tucked away for another decade!  All in good time, eh?  :)  

California Clear Credential with a Cultural Language Acquisition and Development certificate.

Master's of Science in Education, with a specialization in K-12 Teaching and Learning.

Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in Professional Studies, including brain research into long term learning.

Doctoral dissertation researched effective writing instruction and teaching methodologies.