About Me

I am recent graduate from Michigan State University, where I studied journalism and Spanish for secondary education. During Spring Semester 2007, I studied and lived in Valencia, Spain, and traveled to various cities around Spain and Europe.  On August 2, 2008, I am traveling to Perú and experimenting with how technology can aid in travel and language learning (see Proyecto Perú for more information).

In August 2008 I will begin a fifth year with Michigan State through the internship teaching program, earning my Michigan teaching certificate in both Spanish and journalism.

Me as a teacher
I believe strongly in bilingual education, and that all children can all benefit by learning a second language at a young age. I believe that schools and parents should begin to integrate a target language into a child's life --consistently--as early as possible, but that it is never too late to begin learning.  My goal as a teacher is to help students understand the importance and benefits of learning a second language in today's globalized world, and to present it as a useful, fun, and enlightening way to enhance one's life and open doors.

My teaching philosophy is based on creating realistic settings for language learning to occur. This includes a commitment to using Spanish as the language of instruction as much as possible for near-immersion classroom environment. In order to prepare to interact with native speakers, students need to become familiar with the feeling of constant language input and comfortable with not understanding every word that is said to them. A goal of 100% target language use can help students internalize everyday conversational skills and to see Spanish as a way to exchange feelings and ideas just as we do every day in English.

To me, the other important aspect of creating a realistic setting for language learning is to utilize the resources that are already part of modern culture. Spanish-language media from both the U.S. and abroad provides us with an endless supply of relevant materials that are current, meaningful, and culturally authentic.  Additionally, using media provides a way to increase media literacy and critical thinking skills that are valuable in any discipline. Taking advantage of print, online  and broadcast news, magazines, films and music make language learning something that is applicable to every all of our lives. It is a way to reinforce that learning does not have to be boring; We are all consumers of the media in English, so why not in Spanish?

Additional background info
As a journalism major, I am also very interested in magazines and new media and will likely pursue a career in journalism immediately following my education at MSU, with teaching coming slightly farther down the road.  I have completed internships in New York with Condé Nast's JANE magazine, American Media's Star magazine and NBC Universal's iVillage.com. I also interned at Real Detroit Weekly, a weekly entertainment magazine in southeast Michigan. Eventually, I would like to work in women's, teen, or entertainment publishing.  Only time will tell what the future holds...ideally, a combination of everything!