Mrs. Viki Gardner lives in Texas with her husband and two dogs and is a veteran teacher of 16 years. Their children are grown and have left the nest, so Viki has lots of time for teaching online. Prior to her teaching career, Viki worked her way up in the publishing industry from manufacturing assistant to book designer, and eventually changed direction to become a publisher’s sales representative. While working in sales for a school book fair company, she decided to change careers in midlife. Determined to fulfill a childhood dream of being a teacher, she went back to college and obtained her BS in Elementary Education with a Reading Specialization from Texas Woman’s University in 1992. To be sure she could teach at any grade level, she also obtained a secondary license to teach English Language Arts and Reading. After teaching for 12 years in a traditional classroom, Viki returned to graduate school and obtained her MAED in Adult Education/Distance Learning from University of Phoenix in 2005. Viki has been teaching online (and loving it) ever since.

Viki has received numerous awards for her skills in teaching. Her most recent awards are the 2007 CTY Online Teaching Excellence Award from Johns Hopkins University, and an honored place in the 2005-2006 edition of Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. Her work has appeared in Celebrate! Poets Speak Out- Educators 2002, on the Internet, and in other literary periodicals. Besides teaching for Time4Writing, she also facilitates classes for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth program, Advantages Online Private School, and Aventa Learning.