I am an adjunct Spanish professor with The University of Mary Hardin Baylor and Austin Community College. Spanish is not my first language. I didn’t start taking Spanish classes until I was in high school. Through practice, studying and determination I got myself to the point of being fluent. I think this puts me in a good position to write about language learning. There are some realistic strategies that a language learner can follow to become fluent. I like to write about these strategies and other language learning topics. I got my undergraduate degree from Syracuse University and my masters in Spanish at Texas State University.
Before getting my masters and landing a college level teaching job I taught at three different public schools in the Austin, TX area. I spent six years teaching ESL at the middle school level. As an ESL teacher you teach English, but you also teach the other subjects too. This gives you a good idea of what the typical 6th through 8th grader is learning and experiencing each year. I learned a lot of strategies to teach all of the subject areas to learners with special needs. I also had my share of experience with classroom management. Some years I would get a lot of the more troubled students. The other teaching position at a public school that I had was in a high school.
Besides teaching for the colleges mentioned above I also teach college level Spanish classes online. Currently I’m teaching online classes for Florida Community College and Crowder College. I’ve been doing these distance learning classes for two years now. I feel I know a lot about what makes a student successful in an online class and also what makes an instructor successful. My student evaluations have been really high so I think I can share some good advice for people interested in teaching online.
I am married and we have three young daughters. We live just north of Austin, TX. If I’m not working I am spending time with my family. We love to camp and work on the yard.
I have taught all levels of Spanish at the college level for three years. For the last two years I've also been teaching Spanish online at several different colleges. I spent about 8 years teaching at two different public schools in the Austin area. Most of that time I was teaching middle school ESL classes. My classroom had access to Rosetta Stone and other language learning programs. I was the head of the language lab at out school during my last three years there.