About
I have 14 years of experience teaching visual arts to secondary students grades 9-12 as well as volunteering with grades 7-8. I have taught drawing & painting and established programs in photography, 3D-Design, Sculpture, and Ceramics. 12 years of my experience was working in Southern California and currently, for the past three years, I have been teaching in Qingdao, China.
I have enjoyed working with a diverse group of students and economic backgrounds. I have worked at three different schools (two in the same district) which has increased my ability to be flexible, adjust to different contexts as well as work with different abilities and EL levels. I have worked on sites with majority Latino, Korean, and Chinese communities and have been able to successfully collaborate and relate with families and teachers.
At my first school site, I took over a very successful photography program that was strictly film-based. Over the course of my six years at that site, I added digital photography to the master schedule by making the program a hybrid photography class that included traditional film-based photography methods along with evolving digital photography and photoshop techniques. After teaching photography for six years, I transferred to another school site in my district where I taught 3D - Design and Ceramics. The programs at this school struggled to keep students enrolled and over the course of teaching there for six years, I grew the program to the point of having a student waiting lists to take the ceramics and 3d Design courses while adding a zero period class.
Currently, I am living and working in Qingdao, China where I am a photography and sculpture teacher. When I was first hired I started as the dorm director. That year, during Club Rush, I started a sculpture club and had enough students signed up for the school to purchase equipment and supplies. Due to the high number of students in the Ceramics club and the increase in school enrollment, the school Director expanded the visual arts course offerings and I have spent the last two years starting and growing both photography and ceramics programs.
I have enjoyed working with a diverse group of students and economic backgrounds. I have worked at three different schools (two in the same district) which has increased my ability to be flexible, adjust to different contexts as well as work with different abilities and EL levels. I have worked on sites with majority Latino, Korean, and Chinese communities and have been able to successfully collaborate and relate with families and teachers.
At my first school site, I took over a very successful photography program that was strictly film-based. Over the course of my six years at that site, I added digital photography to the master schedule by making the program a hybrid photography class that included traditional film-based photography methods along with evolving digital photography and photoshop techniques. After teaching photography for six years, I transferred to another school site in my district where I taught 3D - Design and Ceramics. The programs at this school struggled to keep students enrolled and over the course of teaching there for six years, I grew the program to the point of having a student waiting lists to take the ceramics and 3d Design courses while adding a zero period class.
Currently, I am living and working in Qingdao, China where I am a photography and sculpture teacher. When I was first hired I started as the dorm director. That year, during Club Rush, I started a sculpture club and had enough students signed up for the school to purchase equipment and supplies. Due to the high number of students in the Ceramics club and the increase in school enrollment, the school Director expanded the visual arts course offerings and I have spent the last two years starting and growing both photography and ceramics programs.
