I grew up in New England but worked very hard to not have the typical accent of that region. I obtained two graduate degrees: the first is a Master’s degree in Education from Tufts University in Medford Massachusetts . My second degree is a Master’s Degree in Psychiatric Nursing from Yale University in New Haven Connecticut. I have had many years of teaching experience and also of practicing in the field as a mental health nurse practitioner. In 1992, I moved to Florida from Massachusetts because I love swimming and wanted to swim in a place where my hair would not turn to ice after leaving the pool!
I loved my education at Tufts University where I studied both elementary and secondary education. I did my student teaching at the Abraham Lincoln School where I taught second grade. I also taught French and Latin at Dorchester High School as a student teacher. While at Tufts, I taught Italian immigrants English on a voluntary basis in the North End of Boston .l taught ESL at The North End Community Action Program. I absolutely loved teaching English classes to these immigrants because they became so excited about their learning.
Due to external circumstances beyond my control, I made the decision to change careers after finishing my Tufts program. After this, I pursued a career in nursing which lead me to a career in mental health. I am still employed as a mental health Registered Nurse and currently work in the field for a home health company in Florida. I like home health because my work involves a lot of teaching.
I have enjoyed working in the mental health field but I have missed teaching English classes. Teaching is my passion and teaching ESL was always my favorite work experience.
After almost thirty years of nursing, I decided to return to teaching ESL. “Pre” the Covid 19 pandemic, I started out teaching from books purchased on line with a few students in person.
In 2020, I became certified when I obtained a teaching certificate from Oxford Seminars. I am certified after taking their 120 hour course via Zoom. Due to Covid 19, this ESL class was taught via Zoom. As a result, I have learned the Zoom teaching platform and absolutely love teaching this way!
I have also had experience teaching ESL in person. I taught a group of Thai people who worked in a restaurant in Tampa. I administered a placement test from the Ventures program. I used the Ventures series books as the curriculum. Each student had a book and a workbook which they purchased. I was able to find good prices for these books and they reimbursed me for them.
Prior to the Covid 19 pandemic, I placed an ad in the Tampa Bay Lifestyle magazine and taught several students in person. Dionysius was one of my students during this time. She spoke Spanish and some English which she learned while living in her native country of Columbia. She wrote a testimonial for me which is on my website.
During 2021 and 2022, I have been teaching ISE students via Zoom. These are teenagers from other countries who are living in host families within the United States. I have several testimonials from these students including Léonie from France, Ricardo from Mexico and Raquel whose native land is Spain. I also taught a boy whose name was Emil from Russia. He left the ISE and went back to Russia and so I was not able to continue with him because Zoom technology does not extend into that country.
In addition, I taught an adult lady named Najat from Morocco whose testimonial is also on my website. Her dream was to learn to speak English because she wanted to go to nursing school. When she first started learning English with me, she did not speak very much English. I translated some of the vocabulary words into French which was her native language so she could understand better the meaning of some words. Najat became more fluent and eventually obtained a job in the health care field. She is now on her way to applying to nursing programs so she can reach her dream.
I love teaching English as a second language because I feel like I’m helping people make their dreams come true! I hope to have the opportunity to meet more people through this website so I can support them to accomplish their life goals in this country. Let me help you get started on your dream of learning to speak conversational English!
