I've been professionally involved in education for 40 years, but not always in TESL: I began
with a B.S. in Music Education at Illinois State University. That seemed a good fit because
I'd been involved in music since elementary school. I enjoyed undergrad school; I was in
both choral and instrumental performing groups and also wrote and arranged music. When
I started teaching, however, I discovered that making music and studying about it were
quite different from teaching it, so after struggling for three very long years, I decided to
seek another career.

I then enrolled in Olney Central College (a two-year school near my parents' home) for
extra coursework in English. My idea was to get an M.A. and PhD. in English Literature
and Composition, so after OCC, I began graduate studies in that area at Southern Illinois
University. During my first semester there, I came to another roadblock: I learned that
friends and classmates with those very degrees were not able to find jobs and were
driving taxis and waiting tables in order to pay the bills.

But then I got lucky. SIU was, at that time, one of only a few U.S. institutions offering
graduate degrees in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. That sounded interesting,
so I enrolled in a few classes just to see what TEFL was like. It was wonderful! I ended up
getting an M.A. and have been active in that field ever since.

That was about 35 years ago, and since that time, I've been an ESL teacher in public and
private secondary and post-secondary institutions, including two university IEPs and a
community college. I've also been a materials developer, a textbook editor, and (briefly)
an administrator, and have worked in ESL in the U.S. states of Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas,
California, and Oregon, as well as here in Arizona. Unlike many U.S. ESL teachers,
I have not taught abroad. I have, however, traveled to some interesting places—almost
every U.S. state, two Canadian provinces, Mexico, much of Western Europe, Taiwan,
Korea, and China. These trips and many years of experience in working with international
students from about 50 countries have helped me change from an "Amurcan" to (I hope)
a citizen of the world.

Until recently, I taught ESL and Developmental English at Estrella Mountain Community
College in Avondale, Arizona (a northwestern "satellite" of Phoenix), but I've been on
medical leave since November 2006 and have had to resign from that position.

I first learned of the Webheads in 2000 or 2001, when I attended a presentation by
Vance at TESOL in Vancouver, BC. I was very interested from that moment on, but when
I started looking into the Webheads, they seemed to be so innovative and tech-savvy
that I didn't think I would fit in—though, oddly enough, I was considered something
of a Net pioneer myself at that time (see this link). Several years later, however,
when I was enrolled in TESOL's Principles and Practices of Online Teaching program,
I actually committed myself to joining the Webheads CoP due to the encouragement
of two quite remarkable women, Dafne González and Teresa Almeida d'Eça.
Dafne and Teresa are teachers, mentors, colleagues, and friends, and I am grateful
beyond words for the empowerment they have enabled for me and for countless
others as well.

The Webheads unceasingly provide me with encouragement, validation, instruction,
empowerment, friendship, cultural insights, true collaboration, and much, much more.
I'm honored to be a member of this extraordinarily dynamic community of practice and
send my heartfelt gratitude to all who have made me feel so welcome in it!