About Me
I wanted to first discuss the passion that I have for teaching, with a focus on English Learners. Both of my parents were English learners. My father grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and my mother grew up and did her brief schooling in a small town in Mexico. I recall as a child that my mother was unable to assist me with my studies after second grade, so I relied upon my siblings to help me. In our Mexican culture, my father's job was not to assist with our education, but with providing for his family. My mother went to school at night so that she could learn more in order to help her children. That made a great impact upon me, so my siblings and I would help her at night with her homework.
When I was working in another field, I heard on the radio of the need for bilingual teachers to teach English learners, because the number of teachers of color was so minimal. That was when I made my decision to become a teacher. As soon as I started teaching, I started immediately receiving training from the County of Riverside relative to English Learners and have been receiving training every since then. I am here to continue my leadership training so that I can continue to make a difference in the lives of many children.
I possess a strong commitment to the development of students academically and emotionally by providing a stimulating, safe and motivating learning environment for them to learn. I believe in collaboration as a team with colleagues and parents, to provide educational excellence, while establishing and promoting an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust. I learned how respect is such an important factor in my life from my parents. My father learned from a young age to live side by side with the Native American culture, Mexican/Spanish culture and American culture and to respect all that those cultures have to offer. My mother grew up in poverty, but was taught to respect herself and those around her. As a child, my father always took his family on vacations (usually driving). I enjoyed learning about new places and have continued that love throughout my life. My other passion is traveling, which I share with my husband and my children. My husband is Dutch/Indonesian, grew up in Indonesia and Holland, then immigrated to the United States as a teenager. We thoroughly enjoy visiting other countries, immersing ourselves in the other cultures, and learning from these adventures, which has now passed on to our children. This is probably one of the reasons that I enjoy working with families of diverse backgrounds. I always find our interactions very interesting and enjoyable.
I have been teaching for 20 years at Romoland School District, and specifically, at Harvest Valley School in Menifee, CA. I am currently a 3rd grade teacher, but have taught 1st and 2nd grade as well. I have a Masters of Arts degree in Institutional Leadership and Policy Studies from U.C. Riverside and also gained an Administrative Credential. I possess a B-CLAD certification as well. In addition, I have National Board certification in the area of teaching English as a New Language and recently renewed my certification for another 10 years. I am also a Reading Recovery certified teacher, which has assisted me in providing reading assistance to the most struggling students.
I have been a member of the California State ELD Supplemental materials review panel, as well as the Reading Language Arts supplemental review panel. I have been a teacher leader/presenter for the California Reading & Literature Project/UCLA, and a BTSA support provider, Teacher on Special Assignment, and was recently chosen as Teacher of the Year for my school site. I have been the grade level chairperson for several years, and am also the E.L. Coordinator for my school site. I have always been involved in making connections with students, parents and the community. I was the Community Based English Tutoring coordinator for 10 years and taught English classes to the parents of our community. I was also an ASB advisor
The reason I chose my capstone project is because there are four members of our 3rd grade team. Two of us have been working together as a team for the past 8 years and we have two new members. One has never worked in a team setting and worked parttime as a Intervention teacher at her previous district. The other teacher has only been back in teaching for the past year. She took 7 years off to raise her children. She is unfamiliar with the concept of Professional Learning Communities and didn't appear to be familiar with the concept of collaborative teams, so I felt that this was an issue that needed to be addressed immediately in order to succeed as a team for the benefit of the students, especially since we also have a new Principal and this is her first year in this role, and she appears to be learning a lot of concepts in her new assignment and doesn't have the time to spend on each individual team.
The following are pictures of my family (husband, son and daughter), my dog, Mochi, a picture of me and my husband as we enjoy our travels, and a picture of me with several of my students when I was surprised as Teacher of the Year.