I currently teach 6th-8th Grade Spanish in Norfolk, Virginia, at a public choice school with 100% lottery-based admissions. This school offers the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme, so all students take three full years of Language Acquisition (World Languages) during middle school.

I first learned about the Modern Classrooms Project via the November 2020 “Cult of Pedagogy” podcast, featuring an interview with Kareem Farah about creating a self-paced classroom. I had been curious about self-pacing due to research showing that learners acquire second languages at dramatically different rates, but I didn’t know where to start. 

After listening to the podcast, I immediately took the free course and designed my first MCP unit the next day. I completed the Virtual Mentorship Program in Spring 2021 and then became a Distinguished Modern Classroom Educator during Winter 2022. I have recently completed the Expert Mentor training and am excited to begin supporting teachers in this way during the 2023-24 school year

When not at school, you can find me talking about our shared students with my teacher-husband. He’s in the classroom next door, so we have lots of time together, which is great but also means we sometimes struggle to leave work at work! I also love just hanging out with my two college-age children when they’re home on break, playing tennis in a mediocre-yet-enthusiastic manner, paddleboarding on our many lovely rivers in Norfolk, doing paper crossword puzzles, and walking while trying to keep up with too many podcasts.