As a former online student herself, Claudine Townley says she often got to know her online teachers better than she knew the teachers in her traditional classes. Today as an online educator, her desire to achieve personal interaction with students and instructors is one of the important reasons that Ms. Townley chose to work at Florida Virtual School.
Developing respectful relations between teacher and students is one of the hallmarks of Ms. Townley’s teaching style. Her interest in students and her love for sharing great literature defines her calling as a teacher. Her success at building rapport with students is one of the continuing keys to her professional success.
For Ms. Townley, reading has always been her first love. Even before her formal education, she found fascination in the words and pictures of her collection of Little Golden Books. Today, after 13 years of teaching, her reading list is more extensive, but the love for characters and stories is still strong, so much so that she has moved out of the classroom in order to coach other instructors in the area of literacy.
Ms. Townley has taught all grades of high school English, and served as chairperson for the English Department at Osceola High School in Kissimmee, Florida, where she was chosen as Teacher of the Year. She has also taught middle school English in New York State. She was employed by Barron’s Educational Series to write a 10th grade FCAT review book for both reading and writing. She counts as her greatest achievements the implementation of Senior Project at Osceola High and the attainment of National Board Teacher status.
Ms. Townley earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary Education from the State University of New York at Oswego. She has performed graduate work at Binghamton University and earned her Masters of Education with a specialization in Reading and Literacy from Capella University.
