Tell us a little bit about yourself and your career before you got to Lincoln
“I have been a teacher for almost ten years. I started my career in New York City, and I taught in New York City Public Schools for most of my career. Then I worked in an international school for a while in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, which is in Central Asia. That was my first experience teaching IB. Then last year, I was at Cleveland which is also an IB school. I grew up in the Portland area and I always had known about Lincoln because Lincoln is pretty well known around here. So when an English position was open here, I just applied for it and wound up getting here somehow.”
Why are you so passionate about teaching English?
“I became an English teacher because I loved English in college. I always loved helping people with writing, and it was something that always kind of came naturally to me, but I could see what it was like a lot of times in classes. People just didn’t teach writing, they would just assign you an essay and be like ‘Here, write it.” I find myself helping my peers with essays, and I [have] always really love[d] that. So, I kind of just fell into it. I received a Fulbright grant, which is a grant where you can go to another country and teach for a while. I did that in the Far East of Russia and that was before I had gotten my Master’s, though I wanted to be a teacher and so that experience kind of made me realize I did want to do it then.”
What are your goals for this year?
“This is my seventh or eighth time teaching 10th grade, so I’ve done 10th grade a lot and so I feel like [my goal is] just trying new things. Sometimes, as a teacher, you get stuck in a rut, especially with the class you’ve taught before. So, to try new things, and teach texts that I haven’t taught before. I think it will probably be a role for this year.”
