Marstars

I have been teaching for over 10 years in a New York City, college preparatory public high school that serves a students from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. I teach both an AP course and a course where a number of the students have individualized education plans. My students are largely motivated and intellectually curious, though come to my classroom at various different ability levels. Approximately 97% of the students in my school go on to a 4-year college. I have also worked as a private tutor, led groups of students on trips abroad, and worked during the summer mentoring small groups of teens in a program organized by the Nature Conservancy to expose teens to nature and the importance of conservation.

My English classroom is collaborative in that students sit together in groups and regularly work on group-work, consult one-another while working on individual work, and come together as a class regularly for whole-class discussions. Regular, short, topic-specific lectures and mini-lessons occur on a regular basis. Students complete individual tasks and assignments both in and outside of the classroom. The large majority of major assessments in my class are project or essay-based rather than tests. However, I do give regular reading and grammar quizzes to check students' understanding of content.

Fund for Teachers grant recipient, 2013

Graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University (major: Teaching of English) Graduate of Wesleyan University, honors recipient (major: College of Letters, interdisciplinary program in Literature, History, and Philosophy) Studied Spanish in Oaxaca, Mexico at the Solexico language school. Lived and studied in Paris, France at the University of Paris.

I have lived in New York City for over 20 years. I have traveled to Europe, Mexico, Costa Rica, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Turkey, and have led students on trips abroad to Spain, England, and China.