Teachers' Corner

Mlle Sun

Our Assistant: Giulia Zammit

My name is Valerie Sun and I embrace multiculturalism and multilingualism. I grew up in a bilingual household with my parents and three sisters speaking only Mandarin. Thus, I learned English at my elementary school when my family immigrated to California from Taiwan.

Fast forward to college, an inspiring high school French teacher and a friend who had recently returned from studying in Grenoble, France, encouraged me to study in Lyon in order to further my knowledge of the French language and culture. A one-year exchange program in 2003 transformed to four years of teaching and learning in the Rhone-Alps region. Nevertheless, my roots as a California native brought me back to the United States. Upon my return to California in 2009, I discovered and experienced first hand the importance and necessity of Spanish. Therefore I continued a previous attempt to learn Spanish at the community college. Today, I am functionally quadrilingual: mostly competent in speaking, reading, understanding and writing in English, Mandarin, French, and Spanish. I hope to one day add Russian and Arabic to that list.

I discovered teaching as my passion when I entered my undergraduate studies at UC, Irvine in 2001. Thus I have always worked within the realm of education in California and abroad. I have taught in multiple private schools and at different levels, ranging from pre-school to high school students. I have also led discussion sections at the University of Lyon III. I graduated from California State University, Fullerton's Multiple-Subject Credential Program in 2011. I also hold single-subject credentials in Foundational-Level Mathematics, Foundational-Level Science, French, and a BCLAD in French.

Aside from teaching, music, cooking, and leading an active lifestyle play a great role in my life. I'm currently learning to play the ukulele so that I may accompany the students while we sing and dance in class. The kitchen is my favorite place to be in the house and my favorite dish to make is chicken lasagna. Lastly, I am once again training for marathons after an almost 2-year hiatus due to back and knee injuries. I also absolutely enjoy going to boot camp workouts. Bring on the adrenaline!

I started working toward my dream of becoming "doctor" last school year. I am a second year Ed.D. student at CSULA. specializing in Educational Leadership and Curriculum Design. I'm excited to apply the theory to make it into practice. It's going to be awesome!

Aside from teaching Kindergarten French at Franklin, I continue to be the district kindergarten math curriculum writer, technology leader, Common Core learning leader, and science fair coordinator. I provide several professional learning opportunities for GUSD and present at EdTech conferences. But mostly, my passion lies in working with the students and making sure that they have the best "first" academic experience to set them on a positive academic path!

Feel free to email me if you have any questions/comments.

My name is Giulia Zammit, I am 23 years old and I am French. I live in St Jean Froidmentel, in the center of France, it is a tiny country village 150 km from Paris. That area is known for its castles and rivers, like the Château de Chambord. You might have seen the design of that castle in the Shrek movie. I have two little sisters who are eighteen and fifteen. Their names are Alessandra and Manuella. I am really close to them and I feel like they are my best friends. I love animals and we have a lot of them at home. We have three dogs, a cat, two horses, a goat and a turtle. We treat them like members of the family.

My father’s parents are from Italy, so I grew up speaking French and Italian. I recently lived in Italy for two years. I studied at the University in Turin and Perugia. I have a Master’s degree in Italian language and history. My degree is valid in both France and Italy where I studied. I really appreciated the opportunity of studying there because I discovered a new way of living and teaching. While I was studying, I also learned some Spanish and Russian. I would really like to learn more Spanish while I am in the United States and become fluent. My goal is to become a teacher. I really like to help the children discover something new. I like the look on their faces when they learn a new thing or a new word. It makes everything seem possible!

I have a lot of hobbies. I do horseback riding with my sisters. We go in the forest or near the river with our horses. I love baking, especially for my sisters. I like to have something nice for them to eat when they get home after school. I enjoy reading as well. I prefer science fiction books and movies. One of my favorite things to do with my family is dancing and singing. We are not really talented but we enjoy having fun together.

Now that you know a bit more about me, I am happy to be here and excited to meet everyone. I hope we have a beautiful year together!