Heidi McDonald

I have been teaching for 21 years. My first teaching positions were as a middle school learning disabilities teacher in Guam, Florida, Virginia, and Hawaii. I have taught overseas in international schools for the past 15 years at the elementary grade levels. I have always had the “travel bug†and I applied to teach overseas after my sixth year of teaching. I have now been teaching overseas for the past 15 years in a variety of international schools in China, Indonesia, Kuwait, and Bahrain at the primary grade level. I have had a variety of experiences teaching students who have learning disabilities and students whose first language is not English. In supplementing the curriculum that I have taught, I have always focused on reaching the needs of all of my students, while making reading and writing fun and challenging at the same time.

Every child is unique, and as teachers it is our job to educate each of our students to reach his or her full potential. In order to achieve this task, we need to engage our students in the learning process. We should provide our students with high interest learning activities and a stimulating learning environment. Above all, I believe that learning should be fun and challenging.

I have been asked to present at regional teaching conferences in the Middle East as well as international teaching conferences in Greece and Bangkok.

I graduated from the University Florida with a degree in Special Education, with a specialty in learning disabilities. Later I worked towards my master’s degree in that same specialty. I attended the University of Michigan's summer graduate program and received a master's level certificate in educational technology.

I am 44 years old. I spend quite a bit of my free time developing teaching resources for my classroom. My hobbies and interests include: hiking, scuba diving, photography, cooking, and traveling. Since I have lived overseas for the past 15 years, I have been able to visit many places that I dreamed about as I was growing up. My latest adventure included climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with three of my girlfriends in February 2010.