About
I am delighted to be returning for my fifteenth year at Thousand Oaks High School as a member of the English and ELD Departments. Some students may also know me from past years as a Spanish teacher or as the current advisor of TOHS's Project Concern, a service club that takes care of our own campus population in need. (If you would like to read more about Project Concern, go to the Project Concern link on the Clubs page.)
I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and have been credentialed for secondary education in California since 1978. I have taught everything from bilingual first and second grade to middle and high school English and Spanish, college Spanish and adult remedial education with the U.S. military overseas. I hold a BA with a double major in English and Spanish from Santa Clara University and a Master's from Stanford University. The highlight of my college career was the year I spent abroad studying at the University of Madrid. I lived with a family, and my day was spent 100% in Spanish--at home, at school, out on the town and traveling by train throughout all regions of the Iberian Peninsula.
When I'm not on campus at TOHS, designing lessons or correcting papers at home, I like driving my bright yellow 2008 New Beetle around beautiful Ventura County. My car has even been the EThOS flagship in the TOHS Homecoming Parade--in 2012 and 2013, a lucky representative from each class was selected to ride in the car while the rest of the EThOS students marched behind, tossing neon green glow necklaces into the Lancer stands. Three years ago, the students painted wood panels to look like the house from "Up", and along with about 500 balloons, these panels were strapped to both sides of my car for the trip around the track. Hands down, we win recognition for being the most spirited entrants in the parade!
When I put my car in the garage, I enjoy taking my dogs, Quigley (16 yrs.) and Bindi (3 yrs.) for walks. They are Queensland Heelers and full of energy. . . like my students! :) A calmer crowd can be found at home in the form of my two guinea pigs--Sofia and Ruby--except when I'm serving the lettuce, cilantro and carrots. Then, their cage is a squeak fest! As a hobby, I collect pigs (no, not live ones!), and my assortment has been growing since I was eight years old. For the past ten years, I have submitted a portion of my collection to be judged at the Ventura County Fair and have won an array of ribbons--red, blue, Judge's Choice, Fair Spotlight, Staff Favorite, Superintendent's Favorite, and Fair Theme. This past summer, I displayed 32 piggie Christmas ornaments with the title of "Deck the Halls with Pigs". Each ornament was suspended by clear fishing line from the top of the display case so they all looked as if they were hanging from the branches of the snowy trees in the background. Some even spun around on their lines and showed their round little posteriors instead of their pink snouts. The judges were so amused they gave me my first plaque--Director's Choice, the highest honor for a collection. I'm going to have to figure out how to top that next year!
I enjoy sewing, baking and cooking, and my husband and I often try to catch our favorite shows on TV together; as you might imagine, I thrive on "Jeopardy" and especially "Wheel of Fortune" with all that vocabulary and spelling! We also like to watch football or baseball games together. He's an avid Dodger and Raider fan, and I say, "Go 49ers and SF Giants!" Ours can be a pretty noisy house!
Mission For The Class
Language was created to communicate. Great writers write to educate or to entertain, and the best do both. As an English teacher within the Academy, I design my lessons and projects to support the mission of EThOS: "The mission of the Thousand Oaks High School EThOS Entrepreneurship Academy is to educate a diverse and motivated student population by providing a challenging program with a business and entrepreneurial focus, opportunities for business and community involvement, and a model for responsible lifelong learning with an emphasis on post secondary career and education."
Students of English 9CP/Pre-EThOS explore major literary genres—short story, fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry and epic. The works studied incorporate timeless universal themes and showcase suspense, humor, dramatic discovery, and personal challenge and conquest.
Within the context of these great works, we will take a closer look at the tools writers use. We will examine narrative style and point of view, facts, details, supporting evidence, opinions, persuasive techniques, cause and effect, generalizations, denotation and connotation, analogies, metaphors and similes, and critical interpretation. The English 9CP textbook contains an extensive guide to literary terms, grammar, mechanics and common usage.
Studying great writing also helps you find and develop your own style for the varied assignments that will become part of your high school experience as well as for your work during college and career. You will write a personal narrative, a research report, an argument essay which may synthesize fiction and non-fiction, and two business letters. As you prepare to write, you will have ample opportunity to study and practice the essential elements of grammar, usage and mechanics including:
I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and have been credentialed for secondary education in California since 1978. I have taught everything from bilingual first and second grade to middle and high school English and Spanish, college Spanish and adult remedial education with the U.S. military overseas. I hold a BA with a double major in English and Spanish from Santa Clara University and a Master's from Stanford University. The highlight of my college career was the year I spent abroad studying at the University of Madrid. I lived with a family, and my day was spent 100% in Spanish--at home, at school, out on the town and traveling by train throughout all regions of the Iberian Peninsula.
When I'm not on campus at TOHS, designing lessons or correcting papers at home, I like driving my bright yellow 2008 New Beetle around beautiful Ventura County. My car has even been the EThOS flagship in the TOHS Homecoming Parade--in 2012 and 2013, a lucky representative from each class was selected to ride in the car while the rest of the EThOS students marched behind, tossing neon green glow necklaces into the Lancer stands. Three years ago, the students painted wood panels to look like the house from "Up", and along with about 500 balloons, these panels were strapped to both sides of my car for the trip around the track. Hands down, we win recognition for being the most spirited entrants in the parade!
When I put my car in the garage, I enjoy taking my dogs, Quigley (16 yrs.) and Bindi (3 yrs.) for walks. They are Queensland Heelers and full of energy. . . like my students! :) A calmer crowd can be found at home in the form of my two guinea pigs--Sofia and Ruby--except when I'm serving the lettuce, cilantro and carrots. Then, their cage is a squeak fest! As a hobby, I collect pigs (no, not live ones!), and my assortment has been growing since I was eight years old. For the past ten years, I have submitted a portion of my collection to be judged at the Ventura County Fair and have won an array of ribbons--red, blue, Judge's Choice, Fair Spotlight, Staff Favorite, Superintendent's Favorite, and Fair Theme. This past summer, I displayed 32 piggie Christmas ornaments with the title of "Deck the Halls with Pigs". Each ornament was suspended by clear fishing line from the top of the display case so they all looked as if they were hanging from the branches of the snowy trees in the background. Some even spun around on their lines and showed their round little posteriors instead of their pink snouts. The judges were so amused they gave me my first plaque--Director's Choice, the highest honor for a collection. I'm going to have to figure out how to top that next year!
I enjoy sewing, baking and cooking, and my husband and I often try to catch our favorite shows on TV together; as you might imagine, I thrive on "Jeopardy" and especially "Wheel of Fortune" with all that vocabulary and spelling! We also like to watch football or baseball games together. He's an avid Dodger and Raider fan, and I say, "Go 49ers and SF Giants!" Ours can be a pretty noisy house!
Mission For The Class
Language was created to communicate. Great writers write to educate or to entertain, and the best do both. As an English teacher within the Academy, I design my lessons and projects to support the mission of EThOS: "The mission of the Thousand Oaks High School EThOS Entrepreneurship Academy is to educate a diverse and motivated student population by providing a challenging program with a business and entrepreneurial focus, opportunities for business and community involvement, and a model for responsible lifelong learning with an emphasis on post secondary career and education."
Students of English 9CP/Pre-EThOS explore major literary genres—short story, fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry and epic. The works studied incorporate timeless universal themes and showcase suspense, humor, dramatic discovery, and personal challenge and conquest.
Within the context of these great works, we will take a closer look at the tools writers use. We will examine narrative style and point of view, facts, details, supporting evidence, opinions, persuasive techniques, cause and effect, generalizations, denotation and connotation, analogies, metaphors and similes, and critical interpretation. The English 9CP textbook contains an extensive guide to literary terms, grammar, mechanics and common usage.
Studying great writing also helps you find and develop your own style for the varied assignments that will become part of your high school experience as well as for your work during college and career. You will write a personal narrative, a research report, an argument essay which may synthesize fiction and non-fiction, and two business letters. As you prepare to write, you will have ample opportunity to study and practice the essential elements of grammar, usage and mechanics including:
- Recognizing parts of speech
- Using proper punctuation and capitalization
- Editing and proofreading
- Formulating topic sentences with supporting details and commentary
- Organizing an effective argument with support from both fiction and non-fiction
- Building vocabulary through context clues and word parts (roots, prefixes and suffixes)
- Employing a variety of phrases and sentence structure for more sophisticated writing style
- Analyzing and summarizing written as well as verbal and visual media, focusing on effective communication