As a young child, I drove my mother crazy: wanting to know how everything worked, why people did what they did, where everything was supposed fit in the major scheme of things.  I think I saw the world as some sort of massive encyclopedia that was just waiting to be figured out. Her response was to teach me to read at an early age.  I picked the skill up with gusto and never stopped.

Later, when I was 8, we moved from Michigan to Cozumel, Mexico.  At this point, everything changed. The rules I had figured out did not always work, and my mom could not answer all my questions anymore.  My approach to culture shock was once again, to try to figure everything out – but to my great delight, it was in a place with palm trees, warm weather, and beaches. 

It must have been at about this time that my brother and I started playing with language, finding the (definitely childlike and non-sexual) double-entendres, figuring out that not everything translates.  We would pick up books in English and read them as if they were in Spanish, pronouncing every last letter in every word and leave my mother laughing so hard she gasped for breath.  I’ve read that siblings sometimes come up with their own language, but we did not need to, switching between English and Spanish midsentence, happily mangling words.

It seems that with my background, teaching language is a logical progression, but it took me a little while to realize it. When I first came to graduate school, I finished an MA in Psychology, but the emphasis on fitting everything into neat, discreet categories seemed problematic.  Before finishing the research for my MA, I completed a certificate in Women’s Studies. The Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature finally beckoned, and I found a place where I could be myself, still trying to figure out the world in that fluid space between languages, where understanding, play, and knowledge come together.

Facts about me:

• Have taught at Stony Brook University since 1998, and at Suffolk County Community College since 2005. 
• Taught English as a Second Language, in Mexico, as a teen.
• At Suffolk, I have appointments in Humanities and in Spanish. At Stony Brook, I have had appointments in Hispanic Languages and Literature, Women's Studies, the School of Professional Development (with Women's Studies classes), and the Harriman College of Business (also with Women's Studies classes). 
• Frequently combine Spanish and Women's Studies: In WST, there are many wonderful Latin American authors I use, and in Intermediate Spanish classes, women's issues are integrated in small ways, such as discussing women presidents.
• Worked in the admissions office of St. Joseph Medical Center in Reading, PA as an undergraduate.  Also translated for patients througout the hospital.
• Will try just about any technology to help with teaching: blogs, Facebook, wikis, Prezi, Power Point, Youtube, Piazza, Blackboard, Quia, WileyPlus, Skype. Use more traditional media,  like movie and TV clips. If it works well, I keep it. 
• Teach both Face to Face and Online.