Autobiography
After graduating from Manchester College with a B.A. in elementary education I spent four years in Roma, Texas as a fourth and fifth grade teacher. I then moved to Tularosa, New Mexico to teach third and fourth grade. Working in these areas left me with many questions: How does culture impact education and schooling? How can children’s literature be integrated in the content areas? How can educators help English Language Learners?

My graduate studies let me pursue answers to these questions. I attended the University of Arizona for my Master’s degree in the Department of Language, Reading and Culture, studying Children’s Literature and English as a Second Language. After two years I decided to pursue my doctorate, majoring in Children’s Literature and Integrated Curriculum with a minor in Multicultural Education. For my dissertation I conducted a teacher research inquiry titled “Mapping Identities: How Preservice Teachers Explore Cultural Identities through Mapping and Children’s Literature.”

I began work as an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas-Pan American in the fall of 2004. I currently teach both undergraduate and graduate reading courses and am the Coordinator of the Reading Master’s Degree program. My research interests include the cultural identities of preservice teachers, the use of mapping as a response tool, and response to children’s literature.

I am currently on the Board of Advisors for Worlds of Words, an international collection of children’s literature dedicated to connecting children with literature in ways that promote intercultural understanding. I am also the editor of WOW Stories: Connections from the Classroom, an online journal of Worlds of Words featuring vignettes of teacher practice.

Teaching Philosophy
My teaching is based on the following beliefs (adapted from Dr. Kathy Short):

1) Learning is an active process that builds on prior knowledge and our personal backgrounds. Learners construct new knowledge when they actively explore how new information fits into the personal, social, and cultural knowledge they already have. New knowledge is always based on our previous knowledge.

2) Learning is a social process of collaborating with others. People learn by talking and thinking with each other. Our language frames our thinking—what we talk about, we can think about. Working with others helps us reach more sophisticated understandings than if we worked on our own because we can challenge each other’s thinking, access multiple perspectives, and support each other as we learn. Learners need multiple opportunities to work in collaborative pairs and small groups.

3) Choice allows learners to connect to their experiences and feel ownership in the classroom. Learners should have as much choice as possible within the educational structure because choice leads to greater interest, stronger motivation, and a deeper investment in education.

4) Learning is reflective as well as active. Learners need the opportunity to reflect upon their learning because it is through reflection that change occurs.

5) Learning requires time. Rushing through the acquisition of new concepts leads to superficial learning, quickly forgotten. Learners require extended periods of time to grapple with new ideas and build new knowledge.

6) Learning occurs in a multicultural world in many ways of knowing. The way we learn and what we value as learning has roots in our personal, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. These personal, cultural and linguistic backgrounds should be invited into the classroom and valued as important resources and ways of knowing. There are many ways of making meaning, and all should be supported in the classroom.

7) The ultimate goal of education and learning is to make the world more equitable. Education and learning is not just about gaining factual knowledge, but about improving ourselves and the world. Learners need to “read the word and the world.”