When I was in 4^th grade, I partook in a pen pal program with students in Japan, and my mind was just blown by the fact that there were entire countries filled with people who spoke and did things differently than everyone I knew in the U.S.  This experience was the beginning of a lifelong love for foreign languages and cultures.  During my sophomore year of high school, I took advantage of my school’s one month study abroad program in Mexico City, and was hooked.  The following year, I spent a semester in Austria, where I learned German and got to visit a number of countries in Europe.  Senior year, I visited England during Spring Break.  I then spent a month backpacking through Central America, learning to love the Spanish language and culture even more!

Hiking Cerro Chirripó, the
high point of Costa Rica,
during my Central America
backpacking trip.

Now trilingual, I decided to double major in Spanish and German at college, but I was disappointed by the programs, so ended up creating my own major: Second Language Acquisition, which combined child development, psychology, education, and language pedagogy into one big focus. As part of the program, I spent a semester in Costa Rica, interning at an English language school, assisting in ESL classes for students ages 5-18.  This was my first real taste of teaching, and I loved it. Almost everyone in my family is an educator, so I guess a teaching career was inevitable, although it took awhile for me to make the choice.  A few years later, I moved to Mexico and spent almost a year there, improving my Spanish, enjoying the culture, and teaching private ESL classes to people in my town.

Celebrating the holiday, Las Posadas.

Four years ago, I was offered the opportunity to teach at a private school in Costa Mesa, CA, and I spent the next three years teaching Spanish to students, Kindergarten through 8^th grade.  Although the experience was incredible, I wanted to grow, professionally, so decided to leave and pursue my California Single Subject Credential in Spanish. I will hopefully be continuing on with the Master’s program, upon completion of the credential component. I am currently a substitute teacher at Orange County School of the Arts, and within the Huntington Beach Union High School District. I recently was offered two almost back-to-back long-term subbing positions at a local high school, and will be teaching Spanish there in December/January and then again from March through the end of the school year.

Some of my elementary students,
celebrating "Day of the Dead."

How did your personality affect your choice of content area?

My personality test results have me labeled as an ISTJ. I don’t usually agree with these types of tests though, because they do not allow people to select how they are or how they act in different situations. For me, work is work, and play is play.  I am one way when I’m at work, but when it’s “me” time, I have different personality needs. For example, I am an introvert when I am not at work: I tend to prefer to spend time alone or one-on-one with someone.  But, this is partially because I get my social fulfillment from working with students. I am not at ALL an introvert when I’m teaching.  I am very energetic, sociable, warm, funny, caring, and supportive, and am comfortable interacting with my students.  I am not quite as caring and sociable when I’m not at work, because I’m tired, I’ve exhausted my “caring” supply at school, and am ready to be selfish and take care of “me.” I also think, plan, and work sequentially when I am doing school work or lesson planning, but I am very spontaneous when I travel. 

Perhaps due to my personality as an introvert, I always really enjoyed studying grammar, and learning new material on my own.  My ability to plan, set goals, and work diligently towards meeting them means that once I set my mind to a task, such as learning Spanish, I worked until I had accomplished it. My love of travel feeds into the desire to be able to communicate with people everywhere I go. I spent three months traveling around Europe last year, visiting 13 countries, and made an attempt to learn at least some things in each language I encountered.

How does or will your personality affect your relationship with your students?

In the same way that some people are social butterflies at parties, or other people get a rush from negotiating high stakes business deals, I come alive when I'm in the classroom.  I truly enjoy working with kids, and they can tell.  I use a combination of humor, warmth, and structure to keep my students engaged, feeling successful, and on-track.  The fact that I am organized and punctual means that I am always prepared, and can model these behaviors for my students.  
People with ISTJ personalities can get frustrated when other people are inconsistent or irresponsible, so this is one thing I have to watch when I am with my students; students are OFTEN inconsistent and irresponsible, and showing frustration won't help at all, and would actually likely make things worse. I will have to be sure to be extra patient, encouraging, and supportive, and help students develop self-regulation and self-discipline in their learning.
Additionally, I tend to create a divide between work time and "me" time. When I am at school, I am 150% there, enthusiastically engaged in what I'm doing.  When I taught elementary and middle school, though, there was very little need to stay after school and attend events, so once my day was done, my day was done. Teaching middle/high school will be different, though, as teachers are encouraged to attend school events, such as plays, concerts, and athletic events, as a way to demonstrate school spirit and to make connections with students.

How will your teaching and learning style affect your teaching and your students’ abilities to be successful?

Regardless of a teacher’s specific personality or learning style, it is our responsibility to recognize that our students need a variety of learning opportunities, and therefore differentiate our instruction to cater to their needs. I am a visual learner, as are most people, so I incorporate a LOT of visual activities into my classroom.  I make use of graphic organizers, use color coding for grammar and vocab, and teach a lot of grammar concepts through using charts. I also try to incorporate a lot of kinesthetic or hands-on activities in class, giving students the opportunity to move, use their bodies to learn, and work with the material with their hands. Although I personally do not learn well in group/social settings, I know that many students benefit from this style, so I try to incorporate pair or small-group activities into most lessons. I was surprised to learn that most people are not verbal learners, even though lecture or direct instruction lesson formats are extremely common; due to this, I will try to limit direct instruction to just a small part of the lesson.