Long ago I thought that teaching music would be what I would like as a profession. I got a B. Music Education and did enjoy teaching as an elementary music consultant on the island of Guam. That meant I gave master lessons to elementary teachers so that they could continue to have music during the school day. I traveled all over the island to different elementary schools - the ocean view never far out of sight. However, in my pre-graduate years, I had also prepared to teach in the...
Long ago I thought that teaching music would be what I would like as a profession. I got a B. Music Education and did enjoy teaching as an elementary music consultant on the island of Guam. That meant I gave master lessons to elementary teachers so that they could continue to have music during the school day. I traveled all over the island to different elementary schools - the ocean view never far out of sight. However, in my pre-graduate years, I had also prepared to teach in the elementary school population and so spent several years on Guam teaching third grade/fifth grade and junior high school English. One year I taught Trust Territory students what came to Guam for their high school years. That is where my interest began in the field of helping speakers of a different first language to understand, speak, and write English.
Once I returned to the U.S., I got a job teaching special education students.....yes, I have a special education credential as well...in San Antonio, TX. I wanted to return to California and so I did. I taught a first grade class where no one spoke English except one student. These children were migrant worker children, and I taught them to read using their favorite songs to sing. My music education had come in handy. Starting in 1974, I taught incarcerated youth, all ages, and began writing my own curriculum as most of the students were turned off by "book larning" Although we had a classroom, most of the students needed individual attention, so when I decided to get out of the jail environment, I started working as an independent study teacher, seeing students by appointment at Butte County Superintendent of Schools site. I did independent study, every subject, every grade, until I retired for the first time in 1996.
After being retired for a few years, I found I missed teaching and went back to work as an instructional aide at an elementary school in Oroville, CA. There was a great need for my creative abilities in providing instruction for kindergarten children who did not speak English as a first language, or other grade school students who needed individual attention in order to learn. The school also knew I had teaching credentials, so I was assigned special individual work with these children. I loved it; in fact, I love teaching and my whole career turned out to be the best thing I ever could have done with my life.
On a personal note, I am the mother of 6 children, now all grown, and on Guam adopted a 4 year old Korean girl who became the subject of my master's thesis. I would enjoy teaching, or rather, helping your child to learn subjects difficult for him or her. It would be fun.
I have much successful experience as noted in the above paragraphs. Of course, there is much more to share as in helping a student in the process of going blind and wanting to prep for his SAT. I have been to college classes in writing skills and I taught grammar on Guam as well. I am intelligent, personable and love what I do, spending enormous amounts of creative effort in personal preparation. I started out teaching a third grade class whose teacher had died in front of the students, causing much trauma for the students. I was hired because I knew children, had children of my own, and traits seen by the man who hired me as being desirable in that situation. We had a successful year - all of us.
I would be happy to speak to a parent or a student to see what i can do to make education a happy experience for you. I am good at what I do and love the work. Please contact me if you are looking to better the environment for your child. I would love to speak with your child and see how he or she feels about what is happening to them in their school environment.
