Tommy Wolfe
I am a graduate student at the University of Illinois working on my Masters in Education plus Teacher Certification. I graduated from the University of Illinois in 2012 with a Bachelors in Integrative Biology and a Bachelors in Psychology. I am the main web-designer for the website and work on achieving other goals that are part of this project. I am excited to see how this project works in developing cultural literacy in an educational setting.
Laura Romaní
Greetings! First and foremost, I am a first generation American citizen and a proud daughter of immigrant parents from Guerrero, México. Secondly, I am a graduate student at the University of Illinois working on the Masters of Education plus Teacher Certification in Elementary Education with an endorsement in Middle School Education. I am also pursuing the Bilingual and English as a Second Language Endorsement in order to be highly qualified to teach in Spanish/English bilingual educational settings. My teaching experiences include being a teaching assistant for the UIUC Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, being a teacher for the UIUC University Language Academy for Children, and being a tutor/mentor for Latino/a students enrolled local Champaign-Urbana schools. I graduated from the University of Illinois in 2010 with a Bachelors of Arts in General Anthropology and in Spanish Studies. I have a passion for working with and learning from students of all ages and grade levels. My goal is to foster bilingualism and multiculturalism within my students and help them develop their cultural literacy and critical thinking skills. I hope that this project can be an enriching educational experience for all parties involved where we build quality intercultural relationships between students, teachers, and administrators.
Tabassum Amina
I am an International student in the United States of America, pursuing Doctoral studies at the College of Education in University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with a focus on Global Studies in Education. I come from Bangladesh, which although is monocultural, there is a strong influence of western culture due to globalization. As a lecturer in a university in Bangladesh, and also through research in primary schools, I have observed the influence of media and technology in the lives of school-going population. Along with that I believe that when people immigrate to other countries, sometimes their cultural ties loosens and gives rise to new or modified cultures and practices. America being a very multicultural society with a large Latin immigrant population, it would be interesting to learn how the children of different countries but same ancestral origin experience their day to day lives differently or similarly. This project will look at this from different aspects and I hope that as a team we will be able to establish a solid ground for cultural exchange among students and academic staff of all partnering schools.
Emily Delanty Aguilar
I am an elementary school teacher. I teach 4th grade for half of the day, and 5th grade the other half. I teach the students in Spanish, which is their native language. This year, I am teaching language arts, social and emotional learning lessons, and writing. I have been teaching for over 11 years now. I taught in self-contained, bilingual classrooms in Chicago for 5 years before moving to Paraguay, South America to work as a teacher-trainer as a member of the United States Peace Corps. I lived and worked in Paraguay for nearly three years. Upon returning, I continued to work as an elementary-level bilingual teacher here in the United States. I am currently working on finishing up my Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction and Bilingual Education at the University of Illinois.
Mbhekiseni Lawrence Madela (Bheki)
I am an international student, a South African native. My country has eleven (11) languages which are official and national. I have taught for twenty years in high schools in South Africa and two years at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign as a Teaching Assistant, teaching languages. I am multilingual, I can speak, write and read isiZulu (my home language); English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and isiNdebele, and I have also done one semester course in KiSwahili - Elementary level. I am a first year graduate student doing PhD. My specialty is in Global Studies in Education (GSE). I obtained my Master of Arts (MA) in August 2012, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, majoring in African Studies and a minor in Gender Relations and International
Development (GRID). I like sports, classical music and traveling. I like traveling the most because it fulfills my desire to learn and
appreciate different languages and cultures.
Development (GRID). I like sports, classical music and traveling. I like traveling the most because it fulfills my desire to learn and
appreciate different languages and cultures.
Naomi Funahashi
I teach and coordinate an online class about Japan and U.S.-Japan relations for high school students in the United States. I also write curriculum materials and lead professional development workshops for teachers on global issues. I was born in Japan, but have lived in the United States for most of my life. I am bilingual in English and Japanese. I am currently a graduate student at the University of Illinois, pursuing a Masters degree with a focus on Global Studies in Education.
Rachel Chase
I am currently a graduate student at the University of Illinois in the Global Studies in Education program. I earned my BA in history and government at the University of Texas, graduating in 2007. I taught high school Social Studies for four years in Texas, before moving to Milan, Italy for my husband's job. Living in Europe has been amazing and life-changing in many ways, but I am ready to move back to the States and get to work! My passion is for teaching history in a way that makes students think critically about the past, present, and future. My goals for this project are to think about how we can enhance language learning and cultural literacy within our current classroom models, while taking advantage of the new technology available. I hope that this website can provide new ideas, resources and encouragement to teachers that may be short on time and money, but that strive to keep pushing the boundaries of educational practice.
Philip Montgomery
I am a middle school Language Arts and Spanish teacher at an international school in Astana, Kazakhstan. I graduated with a BA in Spanish in 2007 from the College of Wooster, before joining the US Peace Corps and teaching English for two years in Kazakhstan. The Peace Corps opened my eyes to the world of teaching and gave me a real taste of life outside the US. I really enjoy teaching language arts and foreign languages because they give me and my students continued opportunities to investigate and work to understand the incredibly diverse cultures present in the world we live in. I am currently a graduate student at the University of Illinois in the Global Studies in Education program.
Daniel Bornt
I am a multimedia artist working in several formats, 2-D, music, and video, while developing open-source courses in art. I received my Master's in Art Education and Graduate Certificate in Community College Teaching and Learning through UIUC. Currently, I am taking new media and technology courses through the UIUC's College of Education. You can visit my personal website at http://danielbornt.herobo.com