Over 25 years teaching community college, high school, and junior high. Over 100 presented workshops and 20 state keynote speeches.
I am most proud of the year I created a secret Spanish Class group of volunters to escort a chronically bullied student between classes, with each student just taking “four minutes a day” to walk, talk, engage, and ultimately befriend him.
This group of normal seventh graders became heroes, saving and transforming the victim’s life. In college, this former victim wrote that my truly hearing his pain and creating a solution was a turning point in his life.
During this time, I coined and added two terms, “entertainment bullying” and “personal bullying” to the national dialogue on bullying. This story has been told and shared with many educators across the country, who have also quietly helped similar vicitims.
Even with this era of high stakes testing, the memory of that seventh grade class is a reminder to me to teach students first, curriculum a close second.
Undergrad at Boston College
Graduate School at U of NC at Chapel Hill
Studied overseas as a Rotary Scholar at Universidade de Sao Paulo (Brasil)
Completed one semester each at:
Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia
Universidade PUC in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
IESA (Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion) in Caracas, Venezuela
Author of five books including:
Teacher Dialogues
The Sixth Grade Guide for Involved Parents
The Seventh Grade Guide for Involved Parents
The Ninth Grade Guide for Involved Parents
The World Language Daily Tech Guide.
.PreK, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, Higher Education, Homeschool, Not Grade Specific
English Language Arts, Specialty, Social Studies - History, World Language, French, Spanish, Chinese, Physical Education, EFL - ESL - ELD, Geography, For All Subject Areas, Economics , Holidays/Seasonal, Martin Luther King Day, End of Year, Hispanic Heritage Month