About Me

I am a poor shot.” Additionally, I consider it of paramount importance in this rapidly changing world to challenge students to have a comprehensive understanding of their world, to be competent to face these unique times, to become men and women of integrity and strong values who can invest in their community, country, and world. Specifically in the area of language, I believe a bi-lingual or multi-lingual person has an edge not only in the competitive work world but in the joys of learning for pleasure. As a learner myself, and a lover of learning, I want to teach and inter-act with students with such enthusiasm and passion that the student not only learn at the time but also become a self-starting learners for life, acquiring skills, knowledge, and the ability to become independent and motivated learners in the future. I believe in a varied and participatory learning atmosphere. I am familiar with and use principles of TPS (Total Physical Response) for language acquisition. In conjunction with language learning, I consider it of great value and importance for students to also acquire a familiarity with other countries, cultures, and worldviews. I want students to see that their present learning situation has great potential for a practical – as well as enjoyable – effect on their future. I believe it is necessary and right to clearly articulate and convey to the student the expectations, to work with the student in accomplishing those expectations, and to lead the student in cross-cultural awareness. I intend to clearly define for them the concrete course requirements and the concrete means by which they may achieve their best possible results. Why do I teach with enthusiasm, passion, and an understanding of the students? The following brief anecdote demonstrates to a large degree how I formed my philosophy of teaching and why I bring to teaching what I do. As part of my degree plan I was required to take a course in a subject of no interest whatsoever to me: Economics. I took the course merely to complete a requirement and check off a box on my path toward a degree in my chosen area. That same semester I took a course I’d looked forward to with great anticipation: Latin American Areas Studies. What a surprise was in store! My Economics professor was knowledgeable, articulate, compelling, and above all passionate about his subject. A new hitherto unknown window on the world was opened to me. I learned so much in that course. Meanwhile, my LatAm Areas professor, although he may have been knowledgeable, was not articulate, not compelling, and not passionate about his subject. I still resent how he cheated us, his students. I want to be the teacher who inspires to greater learning and practice those who already have an interest in - perhaps even a love of - Spanish and French, challenging them to an ever-greater understanding of other peoples and cultures so that they may gain access to new worlds through mastery of another language. I want to be the teacher who opens a window on a new world for those who think they are merely completing a course and checking off a requirement, so that they will be surprised into new thinking and learning, and perhaps even a new love. I am vastly privileged to have lived and worked in Latin America for over thirty-five years. I have traveled or lived in all of Middle America and some of the Caribbean. During the past 4 years I have worked in, and taught in every Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking country in South America, as well as Cuba. What a wealth of experiences, information, knowledge, and areas for further exploration has been mine, that can now be translated to the classroom setting. What an opportunity and challenge for thoughtful and thought-provoking teaching and learning in a purposeful and meaningful way.

Tutoring Subjects