Meet Bernie

Hello, fellow traveler,

The materials posted here are in draft form, waiting for the team of colleagues and travelers who will use and refine it. It’s a lot of words for an amazing dream. Pictures, and student experiences will follow. I'm working on uploading a video and audio talk-presentation of it all for the home page. The model blog will share more details.

It is a crazy lot of work to pull all the details together and write out my passions in the language of education, but catalyzing American young people towards multilingual and multicultural understanding is worth the effort. Secondary students need a venue that is lower-cost and shorter-term than the traditional “exchange programs,” and “summer tour” programs, which are great personal experiences, but are isolated from school and community back home.

Ambassador Service Study course activities will formalize and deepen the immersion experience for individual students and will place them in “ambassador” roles serving both those at home and those abroad.

I have taught full time in California and Oregon for a total of 5 years, and have subbed most of the other years, enjoying access to high school classrooms all over Rogue Valley. I have endorsements in Spanish, Art, Language Arts, Math, Language Arts, French, and ESOL/Bilingual, for grades K-12. I have a MA in Education. (résumé link)

Personal Information

I’ve traveled to and lived in Mexico for 4 years over the last 25. Three of my four children are bilingual because of these immersion experiences. Let me tuck them into my resume. I am trilingual myself due to immersion coupled with independent study. Chatting with folks in their native tongue, and learning from them is such a pleasure for me, and so honoring to them, that I’m convinced everyone should have access to such experiences. Indeed, we have many cultures represented in America, but often it takes a journey outside to truly “see” them and our own. Americans need the experience of other cultures.

I’m also a professional artist with hundreds of commissions behind me, most of which I call “Place Faces.” I do several styles of art which you can see at my web site www.MadroneArtwork.com . Currently I am exploring making original prints of my work. I have recently done participatory art presentations encouraging creativity in Mexico.

I’ve lived in the Rogue River watershed for 41 years, off the grid for the first 13. I love gardening and natural landscapes. Three of my children were born here. Although I am planted and growing deep roots, I am also a migratory bird with a homestead in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico that I am developing as a place to nurture cottage industry that will benefit the workers at a children’s home nearby. I call that home Casa Grace, a simple Mexican home where you may, yourself, want to stay some day.

Hoping this strikes a chord with you,

Bernie Weigand-Nelson

servsyn1@msn.com

541-621-7467 cell