My name is Erin and I'm an MAT ESL student; this is my last course before I begin student teaching in Durham this Fall (I'm really looking forward to it!). My husband and I both went to college in Upstate New York, but we moved to NC after getting married in 2014. My undergraduate degrees are in French and Spanish Language and Literature, but I'm eager to take my love of language and learning into K-12 classroom as an ESL teacher.
When I first moved to NC, I worked for a language learning company teaching Haitian Creole to help foster better cross-cultural communication and authentic partnership between Foreign NGO groups and the communities where they work in Haiti. For the past year, I've been focused on the MAT program and work full-time at the front desk as a receptionist and medical interpreter/translator for a pediatric clinic in Chapel Hill.
I love language; as an undergraduate student I studied French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese*, and Haitian Creole. My language study made my time as a student in Haiti, Quebec, and the Dominican Republic so much more engaging and meaningful.
Thinking back to the books I read when I was younger, I remember moving through book after book in the Junie B. Jones series (she was way more outgoing and adventurous than I was, but she reminded me of my best friend and I loved her!).
I think the book that first really captured my imagination though was Eva Ibbotson's Journey to the River Sea; it's a book about a young girl who spends a summer in a home on the shores of the Amazon River in Brazil*. Watching her navigate the two very different cultures (the one at home, and the one in the streets and town of Manaus, Brazil) made me realize how badly I wanted to be able to move between different people and places to build meaningful relationships and broaden my understanding of the world - I really longed to follow in her footsteps. Although I haven't made it to Brazil yet, it's on my list!
My hope and goal as an ESL teacher is to provide some of the same welcoming, support, and opportunity to be a part of a community that my teachers offered to me when I studied abroad (recognizing that many ESL students are not only visiting, but working to make NC, and the US, home).
I'm really looking forward to this course, and working with everyone!
Hi, Erin! It is so interesting to see the diverse, global experiences of so many members of this class. I doubt it is a coincidence that the books you remember from childhood, including Journey to the River Sea, offer international perspectives. These books open doors to children to have new experiences.
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