About me
I am currently living in Gifu, Japan as part of my practicum work for my Master of Arts degree in elementary education with an emphasis on multicultural education at Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona. I am currently teaching at a private school here but soon hope to move on to the public school system.
I have three previous years of teaching experience at a public community school on the southern side of Tucson, Arizona. I am extremely interested in studying the effects of cultural values on education performance, especially in regards to the rising number of Latino immigrant students in the United States. I wanted to come to Japan for its beauty and fascinating culture and also to experience living as an immigrant myself. I am also quite interested in learning more about Japanese education and how the increasing population of Brazilian students are performing within the Japanese educational system. My dreams are for NCLB to be totally redesigned and for children everywhere to receive an equal quality of education, regardless of their ethnicity, social class, culture, race, religion, gender identity, etc. I hope to play a role in easing the cultural disparity between home and school for so many students by educating teachers about the need to consider the role of culture in educational performance and by encouraging teachers, administrators, parents, and students to learn more about one another in order to better understand the motives of both each other and themselves.
I grew up in the southeastern part of the United States and have spent the last four years traveling around most of the west coast. I currently live with my boyfriend Josh and, in addition to studying and teaching children, I enjoy spending time with friends, learning new things, hiking, traveling, riding bicycles, reading, writing, playing guitar, and creating artwork.
