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Getting Acquainted
Growing up in a metropolitan area of northern New Jersey, I learned early not to talk to strangers. When I turned four, I started spending summers in Maine with my mother’s parents. In their small towns, people greeted one another, chatted on the street, in stores, and this even included strangers.
Since my father’s family had come off the boat from Italy through Ellis Island, and my mother’s family had been in Maine since the 1700s, a split-screen view of life and behavior became normal to me. In New Jersey for school years and most holidays, I belonged to one kind of family and expectations. In Maine, every summer and some holidays, life demanded different attitudes and actions. In both NJ and Maine, my family had active involvement in churches so the faith connection seemed like the one common thread between two different lifestyles and customs. For visitors to this page, I wanted to make sure my About section shared more background life experiences.
Between age 5 and 21, I moved eight times giving me many opportunities to experience being an outsider and also in finding paths to belonging. I attended Gordon College in Wenham, MA until I surprised myself and many other people by getting married in my junior year. My husband’s first job was in Ironton, Ohio, so I commuted to Marshall University in Huntington, WVA, to finish my BA in English and Language Arts.
Fourteen years later, living in Cape May Court House, NJ, I commuted after a full day of teaching to Widener University in Chester, PA, to finish my MA in English Education (140 miles round trip). 19 years after that, I completed a doctorate in education at the University of Phoenix. After commuting to Widener from Cape May, I knew if I ever earned another degree, I did not want it to require more commuting. My dear friend and Maid of Honor lived in Phoenix so going out there once a year for required on-campus courses gave us a chance to visit and me an opportunity to escape Massachusetts winters.
Online learning led to mixing hybrid teaching into my days of face-to-face teaching. Eventually, like many people, I moved to online teaching with college courses and an undergraduate K-8 Homeschool.
Belonging often seems to reverberate as a need through ages and locations wherever I have lived and worked. The idea pushed me toward launching a goal I have had for a few years but never done--belonging to the world of personal websites and belonging to people who want to share and learn via writing, education, and helping others have a sense of belonging.
2022 is the year for this endeavor.
Thank you for visiting and investigating belonging through my blog, publications, reader contributions, and whatever else I might find to enrich this sharing of ideas about belonging, education, and reflections.
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2017 (Jan): Balance Toward Language Mastery. Journal of Arts & Humanities, 6 (1) 32-42.
https://theartsjournal.org/index.php/site/article/view/1077
2015: Feelings: Actions, Methods, and Strategies to Prepare Students for Learning by Creating an Environment Considerate of Affective Needs. Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education, 3 (4).
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/ejie/vol3/iss4/7/
2014: (Jan) HEROES: Creating Classroom Environments, Presentations, and Activities that Positively Affect Student Motivation, Inclusion, and Retention. Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education, 3 (1).
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/ejie/vol3/iss1/3/
2013: (Sep) Female Educational Leadership through an East West Metaphor, A Journey. Journal of Arts and Humanities,2 (8) 6-20.
https://www.theartsjournal.org/index.php/site/article/view/199
2012: (August) Inclusion, Signing, Socialization, and Language Skills. Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education, Volume 2, Spring/Summer 2012.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1140&context=ejie
2012: (April) After a Summer: Pedagogical Developments in Cross Cultural Settings. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Volume 2.
https://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/tpls/vol02/04/tpls0204.pdf
2010: (July) Dissertation: Life Experiences and Perceptions of Female Educational Leaders in China and the United States
https://www.proquest.com/docview/205447405/914F032F870B40D5PQ/1?accountid=35812
2008: Historical Novel, Wounded Dove, West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing
Wounded Dove is the true story of an immigrant family’s determination to have a life in a nation of opportunities of a child’s battle to survive a polio epidemic, of a physically disabled girl struggling to gain acceptance, of a woman’s search for love and life with respect and purpose. This story came out as historical fiction because the timeline of some events was compressed and the names of people and some places were changed, and although research provided facts, letters, and witnesses the author did have to imagine thoughts and conversations. However, everything in this story did happen in Worcester, Holden, and Boston, Massachusetts.
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PRESENTATIONS Regional, National, and International
November 2018: Humanize Online Teaching, Annual, New England Faculty Development Conference, Holy Cross College, Worcester, MA.
April 2017: Teaching and Mentoring in Business, Heifei, Anhui Province, China.
March 2017: Teacher Training for teachers of English: Guangxi Province, Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region, and Beijing, PRC.
November 2-4, 2015- Critical Questions in Education Conference, Academy for Educational
Studies, Baltimore, MD, Feelings: Actions and Strategies to meet Affective Needs of
Students.
November 15, 2013-New England Faculty Development Consortium Conference,
Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, Stories Build Inter-disciplinary & Critical Thinking Skills
May 22, 2013-Technology Symposium, Suffolk University, Boston, MA,
What is at Stake? Students and Plagiarism.
May 8-10, 2013- Istanbul, Turkey, Bogazici University, Globalization and
Knowledge Conference, Socially Adapting Language Teaching.
September 2012 – Lilly Foundation Conference for College and University Teaching
Sept. 20, Teaching for Head, Heart, and Hands
Sept. 21, Educating Students with Starfish, the Researched Power of Metaphors
May 2012: W.A.I.V.E. for Cross-Cultural Pedagogy, based on the article published in April 2012, After a Summer: Pedagogical Developments in Cross-cultural Settings.
October 2011-Faculty Development for Anna Maria College Adjuncts-Writing in Diverse Disciplines
August 2011-Teacher Training Videos -for Holy Global Education & Technology co., Ltd.
Company address: 01, Zone 3, Wanliu Campus of Peking University, Haidian District, Beijing,
China, 100089 Holy Global Education Language School in Beijing, PRC, School CEO: Bao Li
December 2010: Faculty Academic Symposium-Enrich Life and learning with Cross-Cultural Experiences
March 2010: Faculty Development for Anna Maria College Classroom Management, Paxton, MA, Presentation Title: P.A.Y. as you go. (Prepare, Action, Yes).
October 2009: Using American Sign Language to Advance Language Arts Skills, Lake Street School, Spencer, MA.
May 2009: The annual Teaching Professors Conference-“Play’s the Thing: A Non-Intimidating Look at Messages and Methods” Boston, MA.
2008 November: National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention: Building for the Shifts (panel presentation, question, and answer session) San Antonio, TX.
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Awards
2013- The Robert F. Kennedy Award, Presented by the Student Body for Contributions to the Anna Maria College Community.
2011-Living the Mission, presented by Anna Maria College for exemplifying the college mission
Service to the Community
Hosting foreign teachers, graduate students, undergraduate students, tutoring foreign students, Tutoring ELLs, (TEFL certified)
Volunteer Teacher Training of Teachers of English in 7 summers and 1 spring in provinces of China, Teacher Mentor, Contributor to Center for Teaching Excellence, Writers’ Circle Organizer, member and volunteer docent Ashland Museum, Sunday School Teacher, Book Group Leader, Women’s Study Group, VBS Director/Teacher, After-school Enrichment clubs, Tutoring, Food-pantry, Ashland Christian Emergency Services, and Circles Ashland, VA, supporter, Member Reconciling Ministries Network, Promoting the learning of ASL.
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