I received my BA in Religious Studies from California State University, Chico. I directed the Workers Rights program at Community Legal Information Center because I thought I was going to be an attorney. I went on to study Counseling and Applied Psychology at Northeastern University because I thought that maybe I will be a college counselor. Eventually I figured out I really wanted to teach. I moved back to California and received my Multiple Subject Credential and Masters in Teaching from UC Davis. I knew I wanted to help people, it just took me a while to figure out that "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" (Nelson Mandela).
The recession was killing education, so I got my Single Subject Foundational Mathematics credential just in case I couldn't get hired on in elementary. Over 120 applications later, I finally landed an interview teaching high school math, and have been doing it ever since.
My passion lies in language. I'm not educated as a Mathematics teacher, so I bring a different perspective to why kids struggle to learn math. I work to integrate the literacy strategies of the elementary level classroom to make academic language more accessible for my special education and English language learners. I think some of my colleagues believe I am destroying mathematics, making it too soft. My content is rigorous but my methods are scaffolded in hopes that I can change the way kids feel about math and maybe bring back some of the magic math held for my 5th graders when I was student teaching.
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