My goal as a teacher is to encourage, inspire and teach through active and engaged learning. My strengths come from my life experiences as a loving wife, stepmother, traveler, sister and daughter. I believe I am honest in my approach to life and will always bring this into my classrooms.
My greatest inspiration in becoming a teacher has been from my husband, Brian and my stepdaughter, Ivy. Although Ivy is away at college right now in Alaska, from the very first time I met Ivy, I have watched in her eyes the new things that she learned every week at school and watching her learn about nature, the ocean and wildlife from her father which has helped me to realize that I want to teach children everyday.
With a surfer husband and surfer daughter, we have spent a lot of time at the ocean, Brian has taught Ivy to “never turn your back on the sea!” Although I don’t have my own children, I feel as close to Ivy as if she were my own. I am lucky that she has parents that share her with me. Taking this path to teaching, my students will be my kids and I will embrace the teacher-student experience with all that I have.
A more little about me...
I always wished that I was one of those kids that knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. An architect, a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, a movie star? My mother reminds me that I talked a lot about becoming a news reporter but I don’t recall that, although I would have be good at it, since I'm so inquisitive. I have never been known to follow a specific path. My life has been a journey thus far and now the path as lead me into the elementary school classroom. For the past ten years I have done much talking and much thinking about becoming a teacher so now I'm doing it.
I come from a very loving and dedicated family. I am very close with most of my siblings, my mother, and my father (who passed away 10 years ago). He would be very proud and would adore my husband. At the time of my high school graduation in 1981, the emphasis on my education seemed to be lacking. Perhaps my parent’s divorce and moving us across the country might have played a part in this. Whatever the case may have been, my junior college experience lasted only long enough to complete a few general ed courses and make a few friends, so when I decided to continue my education at San Francisco State, 12 years later it was quite a different experience. I sat at the front of the class, debated with the instructors, listened intently and became the student I wish I had always been.
In between my schooling, I lived in Lake Tahoe for a few ski seasons and have the knee scars to prove it; San Francisco for over a decade, and was fortunate enough to save enough money to fund my way through England, France and some parts of Mexico, Costa Rica and Belize. What I learned from my travels are priceless and I hope to encourage and teach what I learned while traveling. My giant world map will be the first to be hung up in my classroom.
The first thing that led me to pursue teaching is that during my Liberal Studies program at SFSU, I participated in a teaching internship program called The STAR Program: Students Talk About Race at Terra Nova High School in Pacifica, CA. I led a class of 9th graders once a week (for 10 weeks) in discussions about race, prejudice and how it affects each of us. My class was filled with a diverse group of students and I felt that it was a very successful program. I received “thank you” cards from almost all of the students and when I read them today I am still very touched. I found the students to be respectful, outspoken and interested in what I had to say. I would like to incorporate this into my future classrooms. I think students need to start learning about this at the elementary school level in hopes that they will be embrace the diversity that the world has to offer throughout their lives.
Following my graduation from SFSU, I traveled again through Europe, spending time in England, Portugal, Spain and Greece. Upon my return, finding employment and paying back my student loan were my priorities. Living in San Francisco for 16 years, was expensive and as a result I ended up pursuing a career in advertising instead of teaching. I don’t regret my decision. I learned a lot about the business world and how media affects us on a global level.
Jump ahead a decade to the morning of January 21st, 2009, after a night of celebrating the presidential inauguration, which happens to be my birthday as well, it became clear that I wanted to do something better than to work in a field that I had no passion for. Teaching is want I really wanted to do. I felt like watching the inauguration, on my birthday, made me want to be a better person. Throughout my life I have always felt that I had an inner connection with young people and always enjoyed being a role model for the children in my life (i.e. step-daughter, nieces, friends and neighborhood children). I now play a greater role in life as an elementary school teacher.
