photo credit: Ella Stoneman 2019

Greetings!

I graduated cum laude from San Jose State University with a BA in Environmental Studies Multiple Subject Teacher Program, spending an extra year to learn more about physics, anatomy and physiology, geology, biology, and earn the authorization to teach science. In 1995, I graduated from San Francisco State University earning a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential with a Middle Level Emphasis, specializing in Adolescent Development and Science.

My College Journey:

Eager to teach, I participated in Earth Day 1990 at SJSU, organizing events and inviting local elementary schools to have a day full of environmental education. Teaching became a passion. Serving as the Executive Director of the Environmental Resource Center at SJSU, a student-run activity center where students earned college units for their environmental projects, I led the class who staffed the center. During my summer as a naturalist for Deer Hollow Farm in the Los Altos Hills when I realized the children that needed camp most were often stuck in classrooms.  I do what I can to bring students out into the living laboratory of our world.  I began as a volunteer to lead teen talks for the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, teaching local teens about the groundwater pollution areas called Superfund Sites. Youth have the power to change the world and I believe education is the key to making it happen. Being involved with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, and teaching after school for MESA (Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement) shaped my philosophy that cooperative learning and project-based learning are fun and engaging ways for students to develop the problem-solving skills we need in life. Through the experiences leading drug abuse prevention summer camps for the American Indian Health Center of Santa Clara which taught me that our health is connected to the health of our environment; and that facts don't change behavior-- but humor, respect, and loving kindness open both hearts and minds.  

Teaching is a craft. Like doctors, our credentials are a license to practice. My practice in the classroom  began in earnest as the Environmental Education Coordinator for Peninsula School in Palo Alto, a school with no grades-- student progress was described through learning fairs and parent conferences.  After graduation at SJSU, I entered SFSU and completed my student teaching through several middle schools in the San Francisco Unified School District.

Teaching:

I taught middle school math, science, and health in San Francisco and South San Francisco before moving to Cayucos in 1999. I started teaching at Los Osos Middle School in August of 2000. It's been here at LOMS that I have realized my dreams of having an outdoor classroom and teaching middle school health and science integrated with engineering, environmental principles, and habitat restoration projects in the coastal dunes.

Highlights