Short Biography 「略歴」

I am originally from a small town in north Florida named Blountstown.  Blountstown is a very small conservative town full of small town values and big Sunday dinners.  I left when I was 18 to pursue acting at Troy University.  There I double majored in Theatre/Communication Arts and English.  From there I got my first teaching job in Houston, Texas where I stayed for three years.   I like Houston a lot but wanted to escape the cinder-block walls of high school teaching and began planning my ascent into graduate school.  I did a year at the University of Texas at Dallas before I realized that English teaching rather than drama was my passion.  With the first 18 credits of that degree under my belt, I headed to Japan to teach EFL English to Japanese high school students.  I loved every aspect of my life in Japan and ended up staying five years.  With the intent to return to Japan as quick as possible and teach in a Japanese university, I moved to Hawaii to finish a Master's program in Second Language Studies.   I graduated with an M.A. in Second Language Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I have now returned to Japan where I teach university English.  I live in a small, very rural town not too far from Osaka and Kobe.

Throughout my life I have had several interests that have stayed with me from junior high school to now.  I will list them here and over time will post more information about them in this section of my portfolio.

Personal Interests  「趣味」

Picture

Slides from my Self-Introdction Lesson