Profile

• Time Zone

  Pacific

  
  
• Organization

  Hayward Unified School District

  
  
• Employment Status

  (not set)

  
  
• Role

  Teacher: students in my class(es) will participate

  
  
• Teaching Since

  1995

  
  
• Describe your teaching experience and interests in a brief public biography (200 words)

  I have taught elementary grade 1, 2 and 4. One year of Kindergarten. High School teaching Spanish, French or Italian. Currently teaching 4th grade for nine out of the last 10 years at my current elementary school. I love plants since I was a toddler, with colorful stories about my advocacy for plants recounted to me by my extended family. I find nothing more beautiful on this universe than plants. However, I am concerned about sustainable methods for growing plant foods for human consumption, deforestation, poaching of endangered plants, and decreasing nutritional content of some plants grown as staple foods around the world. I promote looking to plants for more than our dietary sustenance. I also see them as reservoirs of healing properties that go beyond consuming them directly. They provide shade, climate control, feelings of peace, serenity and joy. Plants are, of course, a sine qua non, of the chain of life on this planet. My interest has also been growing for the related non-plant entities known as fungi -another inescapable link in maintaining a viable web of life on this Earth. I find that my students are more than eager to join in on the exploration of plants and fungi, whenever the opportunity is available to them.

  
  
• School name

  Park Elementary School

  
  
• Your school website URL (optional)

  http://park.husd.us