When describing the essence of Cortney Lane, I could start with the college degrees and 20+ years of teaching. However, the foundation of who I am and why I do what I do will always begin with Faith and Family. My husband has always supported my endeavors, and now that our children are getting older I feel more able to explore my career further. My mother and mother-in-law have both modeled exceptional careers as math educators and left big shoes to fill. Although I must admit it was not my initial career path, it was soon clear that teaching would be my mission.

After our school went through an intense, 3 year, PLC at Work training, I became a Solution Tree Associate (PLC at Work and Math at Work). This provided me the opportunity to support other schools and teachers in improving their practice. I LOVE this work. Providing the best learning experience for my students has always been imperative to me. This new work gives me the opportunity to positively affect exponentially more students by encouraging their teachers and sharing effective strategies that they could immediately implement in their classrooms. The incredible, overwhelmingly positive feedback that I received made it clear that teachers found my advice relevant and applicable because I was in the classroom with actual students each day just as they were. After deliberation, I feel strongly about retaining my role as a teacher, learning about my students and best practices to facilitate their learning, and sharing that knowledge at every opportunity with fellow teachers and administrators who want to optimize student learning.