Maria Almaraz-Robles
Maria is still working as a Bilingual teacher at Rockford's East High School. This is her tenth year in the school district, where she continues to teach biology to non-native speakers. Maria has presently become a new mother. She had a baby girl on November 20th. Maria says, "I would enjoy mentoring a student teacher, especially one that is interested in ESL or Bilingual Education. I would like to come back to campus for events or reunions, if time and baby permits!"
Michele Campbell
Michele has been teaching French and ESL at a South High School in Minneapolis, MN since 1998. She is also a Small Learning Community program coordinator, student leadership team mentor, and the director of the Area Learning Center after-school credit make up program. She is responsible for facilitating community partnerships for their program, helping teachers create interdisciplinary team projects, and student advocacy. Michele says, "I am very passionate about issues of equity in education. I won an excellence in education grant two summers ago to do graduate work in French because of my work at South. I was also the dean of an ESL summer camp in Tours, France last summer. I am currently working on my MFA in Creative Writing, which I hope to use to get some international university teaching experience." AND, she says she has a blog that is really cool and fun that everyone should read: http://voixdemichele.blogspot.com
Eddie Fergus
Eddie earned his Ph.D. in Social Foundations and Educational Policy in 2002 from the University of Michigan. In October 2004, Routledge Press published his dissertation. He currently is a project/research associate with the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University. Eddie is also an Adjunct at Hunter College, teaching Research Methods and Social Foundations in Education to graduate students.
Michelle Mitchell
Michelle is a private teacher with a British firm, Bonne International, in Moscow, Russia. She currently has been tutoring a 5-year-old boy in English, and in addition has her own clientele of private students, which include teens, college students, and adults. She plans to continue her work at Bonne and says, “Being flexible and understanding your students' needs is critical. Cross cultural understanding goes without question especially in the ESL/EFL field. Being familiar with the current methodology and educational system in the country where you are working if working overseas is also helpful. If anyone is considering teaching in Russia, I'd be happy to offer advice and to answer questions. I went to work for Bonne nearly a year ago because I got sick of the not so user friendly work schedule in the corporate English world. Most classes were early morning and then again 'til pretty late in the evening. Life is too short to deal with the chasing aorund town 2-3 times a day and I missed working with children so I left corporate English and have no regrets. I love teaching little Misha- the 5 yr old boy I work with. The family I work with owns a large house in Coutchevel, France and I spent the first 2 weeks of January with them there. I just had to help Misha with English for 3-4 hrs before dinner after the ski and snowboard slopes closed at 5 pm. I can't believe I get paid to snowboard with a 5 yr old in the Alps! This has got to be the coolest job I've had. (-pictures from Courchevel). Asked how her BC experience influences her teaching/administration/work, Michelle says "Gads- I was a Russian/Education major so I use both in my daily living! Actually, it was back in 94 while on the ACM Krasnodar program I began getting into EFL when working with 6th graders at a local school 2-3 times a week. Something clicked then and I knew that I wanted to pursue ESL/EFL as well as Russian. This week, it will be 17 years since I first came to the then Soviet Union as a high school student. I'm not sure then I'd have imagined I'd later settle and work here." updated 4-30-07
Rebecca Thompson
Becky has been teaching 3rd grade in Lake Geneva, WI since 1998. This is her seventh year teaching and she is pondering the questions we asked (and will get back to us soon with her responses).