Who am I?

With almost 44 years of life under my belt, it’s difficult to sum up the entirety of my identity, but here are the bare facts, as they relate to education. I was born in Heidelberg, Germany, to American parents and moved to Texas before I was 3. I always knew I wanted to learn German. I took Spanish in grades 7–9, and then German in 10–12, as soon as it was offered. I majored in German and English and got my teaching certificate (secondary) in both subjects. I taught both for 1 1/2 years and then managed to expand the German program enough that I could teach full-time German for the remainder of the 5 years that I taught. This was all at Bellaire High School, a magnet school for foreign languages in Houston.

After those 5 years, my husband and I decided to start a family, and I opted to be a stay-at-home mother. I’ve had a few part-time jobs along the way. I taught German and assisted to teach Japanese and ASL at a private school world languages course. I also briefly taught physical education at that same school. I’ve had a few tutoring jobs over the years, as well — algebra, German, and English. I homeschooled my children for a few years around middle school. And for 6 years, I co-owned a fitness business and taught fitness kickboxing.

As I began to burn out and lose my passion for teaching kickboxing, I sat down with a friend to figure out why I was unhappy and what it was I wanted to do with my life. She helped me figure out that although I was tired of the drama that I was shocked to realize still occurs between women in their 30s and 40s, and while I was tired of being surrounded with the unattainable pursuit of physical “perfection”, what I really had enjoyed about the fitness industry was the TEACHING aspect of it. I am a teacher at heart.

So I enrolled in UMass Boston (online) in pursuit of a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics with a focus in Foreign Language Pedagogy. I’m taking one class at a time, getting caught up on current educational philosophies and practices, and exploring my options, trying to figure out how I can best be of service to my community once my children graduate high school.

In addition to my classes, I do some tutoring, I volunteer some at the local high school (mostly tutoring), and I volunteer teach English to adults in our community through Intercambio. I’m also attempting to write on a somewhat regular basis. . . to reflect on and deepen my learning.