Me at my usual position, in front of the puter
/Articles I have created or significantly expanded
/sandbox
Hola! I am an American English-as-a-foreign-language teacher who has lived in central Mexico for over seven years, first in Toluca and now in Mexico City. My interest in Wikipedia began as an outgrowth of my interest in technology and language learning in general, looking for ways to authentically practice language skills in the form of projects. That was about five years ago. Since then, I have become rather addicted to writing and improving articles on Mexico in the English language Wiki for several reasons. First of all, much of what I write about requires the use of Spanish-language sources of information. For some reason, L2 reading is tough for me, so this forces me to read in Spanish and produce something to show for all the effort. My Spanish reading skills have improved. Second, I learn so much about my adopted home Mexico. It has allowed me to look at what I see with new eyes and much better appreciation since I know about the history and culture behind all the churches, archeological ruins, plazas and crafts that can seem to be the same after a while. Thirdly, I have met many intelligent and wonderful people through the various groups, people and projects of the Wikimedia Foundation.
I am involved with various groups and projects related to Wikipedia. I am the Regional Ambassador for Mexico (sounds impressive, right?) with the Global Education program. My main responsibility here is to encourage professors and students to use contributing to Wikipedia to further educational objectives, with a special interest in foreign language education and intercultural communication. This came about from my work as a teacher and Wikipedian at ITESM in classes and with Club Wikipedia at campus Ciudad de México. I continue to work in outreach and developing new ways for students to be involved with Wikipedia, such as the social service requirement for International Baccalaureate students. I am involved in Wikimedia México as outreach coordinator, with two GLAM partnerships to my credit: one with the Museo de Arte Popular, Mexico City and the other with Museo del Objeto del Objeto.
I cannot stress enough how much this has enriched my "wiki life" and my life in general, meeting people from all over Mexico with ambitions. I have an international networks of contacts in museums, national archives and more to allow me to give opportunities to students as I help myself as well.
As a teacher, I have worked at ITESM for over 8 years..., for the first five years, I worked at Campus Toluca but now I am in charge of the language laboratories at Campus Ciudad de Mexico. My professional interests are Computer assisted language learning, Self_access_language_learning_centers and the teaching of composition. At Campus Toluca, I started their self access digital lab and used Wikipedia for the advanced college-level English classes to teach writing skills. Because of this, I tend to work on articles related to Mexican geography and Language education. At Campus CCM, I'm working on changing the laboratory focus from the traditional (read: boring) listening drill work at workstations as a class (you know the crap we've been doing since the 1960's) to a self access resource center.
I have a B.A. in Linguistics from Rutgers University, a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Arizona and M.A. in English Language and Linguistics from the U. of Arizona. I have taught advanced English as a second/foreign language for over 10 years at Cochise College, the U. of Arizona, ITESM Toluca and ITESM Ciudad de Mexico
I am originally from Carteret, New Jersey but I have lived in California, Texas, Germany, Massachusetts and Tucson, Arizona, Toluca, Mexico and now Mexico City. I love Mexico but I DO SOOOOO miss decent pizza and bagels! (I dont miss telemarketers and junk mail however. :D ) As you can see, my professional life takes up much of my time and effort at this point in my life. That is because after being a stay-at-home mom for 15 years or so, its time to have a career! That and the fact that I love what I do.
[edit] International Baccalaureate
For the Spring 2012 semester, I am working with a number of students from the International Baccalaureate program. These include:
[edit] Userboxes
