Education

• MA, Foreign Language and Literature, 1999, UW-Milwaukee
• MLIS, Library and Information Sciences, 1999, UW-Milwaukee
• BA, Spanish Major, 1996, UW-Milwaukee

I was born and raised in Spain and I am the oldest child of three. I moved to the United States with my husband and my two boys when I was 27 years old. Once I learned English, I worked for many years as a Social Worker, before I completed my higher education and started teaching. In addition to teaching, I like to go for walks and to the movies with my husband and adult children, spend time with family and friends, read–especially novels–in English or Spanish, cook and work in my garden.

Research Interests

• Teaching and Learning
• Second Language Acquisition
• Latin American Literature and Culture

Courses Taught

I teach a variety of levels of Spanish, from beginner’s level to advanced conversation and composition courses. I have also taught a Freshman Seminar and some culture courses, including Study Abroad in Madrid. I regularly teach a Spanish Immersion Course and the Practicum for Teaching Assistants in Spanish. Recently I have also been engaged in designing and teaching hybrid/blended sections of the first four semesters of Spanish at UWM.

Other Responsibilities

Since the summer of 2005, 50% of my appointment at UWM has been dedicated to perform the duties of Spanish Language Coordination. As such, I am directly involved in mentoring and closely monitoring instructors in the first four semesters of Spanish, especially Teaching Assistants. I am the first person to whom instructors and students in these courses come for advice on issues related to teaching, as well as to general UWM policies. I mediate and resolve student problems and complaints involving language courses, instructors and/or classrooms.

Select Publications

How Students Learn Object Pronouns in Spanish. A Lesson Study Project. http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=74634926463137.

Content and links Companion Website to the fourth and fifth editions of the Spanish textbook ¡ARRIBA! Comunicación y cultura. Zayas-Bazán, Eduardo, and Susan M. Bacon. ¡ARRIBA!. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004.