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I am a water creature, having spent my childhood in Hawaii and other watery places, and I still am, but I am also passionate about living in the Sonoran Desert, the place of summer monsoons and gentle, female rains. I look to the desert as my model of "survival of the most cooperative," to use the words of the writer Alison Hawthorne Deming, as in the paloverde tree, which shades the young saguaro so it can grow. I am passionate about teaching and care deeply for my family and friends. As a writing teacher, I am concerned about preparing my students for any academic writing situation, but I also try to help my students recognize the power of writing for them personally. As my friend and mentor Lynn Nelson says, "We know more than we know," and "real" writing from the heart helps us to discover what we know. I have seen students transformed by the power of writing. My primary interest in literature has always been American literature. For the past several years I have immersed myself in the works of American Indian writers and indigenous people's culture and have enjoyed teaching a combined class of English 101 and American Indian literature. Some favorite authors are Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan, Luci Tapahanso, Louise Erdrich, and Sherman Alexie. I also team teach with Darby Heath, an anthropologist, in a learning community which consists of English 102 and Anthropology 245 and is called "Voices of the Past and Present: Indians of the Southwest." Darby, our students and I have benefited greatly from the many Native American guest speakers who have visited our class. In fall 2002 Darby and I are looking forward to team teaching a learning community for Honors students called "Weaving the Tapestry of our Lives," which combines English 101 and Sociology 101. In addition to teaching, I am also chairperson of the Language and Humanities Division at CGCC. Our division consists of the following disciplines: English, Humanities, Foreign Language, Philosopy, Religion, Reading, and English as a Second Language. |