CERTIFICATES

Oregon Teaching Certificate (effective January 2, 2011 – January 1, 2016) Expired.

EMPLOYMENT

EARLY ON: Worked in a variety of jobs involving editing and advertising: Young and Rubican, Los Angeles, California, Air Transport Association, and the National Association of Letter Carriers in Washington, D. C., where I was Assistant Editor and Advertising Manager for The Postal Record, a national union publication.

TEACHING POSITIONS:

Washington High School, Portland, Oregon, under Principal Bill Gray, where I taught English, grades 9 and 10, and accelerated reading courses.

Adams High School, Portland, Oregon, under principals Don Holt and Colin Morse and Quincy School Directors Jerry Conrath and then Sid Birt, where I worked in Quincy and Beta schools-within-schools programs as a member of teacher teams, developing curriculum and school philosophy, teaching English and remedial reading, social studies and other inter-disciplinary classes and counseling up to 15 annually assigned students (and, on occasion, their families) from a variety of cultural and educational backgrounds.

Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, under Director, Admissions to Education Program, Mike Carl, where I worked part-time as a graduate assistant supervising the education department’s admissions process, advising students and creating, administering and grading tests for prospective teachers.

Benson High School, Portland, Oregon, where I supervised, coordinated and taught a reading course designed to motivate at-risk high school students, training two assigned teachers and an aide who worked with us.

Hays/Lodge Pole High School, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Hays, Montana, under Principal Vern Anderson, where I taught English and journalism, served as student/parent advocate, sponsored Pep Club and chaperoned girls’ basketball team.  Because Hays is located in an extremely remote area, students needed and asked for my assistance in forming a youth group (“Skins”), which provided after-school activities and an opportunity to deal with problems relating to school, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, suicide, unwanted pregnancies and family problems.

Heart L Ranch, Twin Bridges, Montana, where I worked with my husband, Hal Morin (Turtle Mountain and Little Shell Chippewa), as a ranch hand on a 9,000 acre cattle ranch.  (This was the most humbling experience of my life.) 

Roosevelt High School, Portland, Oregon, under Principals Bill Gray and George Galati, where I supervised, coordinated and taught ESL (English as a Second Language) in a Basic Skills Program (basic literacy – reading, writing, ESL and math), working with Indo-Chinese refugee students identified as being either from pre-literate backgrounds or as illiterate in their native languages.  Most students were Hmong and Mien; Laotian, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Hispanic students were also present in my classes.  I trained a variety of teachers and aides in this program.  I also supervised and coordinated programs for the Roosevelt Title I Summer Schools, making provisions for teaching basic English skills to mainstreamed limited English speakers along with the regular Title I students.

North Portland Youth Service Center, Portland, Oregon, under Director Ron Potrue, where I planned, coordinated, supervised and taught in the Southeast Asian Tutoring Project, obtained with a grant by the Youth Service Center.

Foxfire Project, Portland Public Schools, Lincoln High School Summer School, with Jan DeWeese, Mike Sweeney, Barbara Stross and others, where I planned, coordinated and team taught a Foxfire course, working with 10 different ethnic groups (African, Latino, Native American and Southeast Asian groups) to cooperatively produce a book of culturally relevant materials.

Portland State University, Division of Continuing Education, Portland, Oregon, where I co-taught and coordinated ED 410: “Mainstreamed Students With Limited English Proficiency” with A.I.M. teacher Judy Annus.  This class provided an overview of the special needs of mainstreamed ESL students and focused on interdisciplinary, collaborative, and practical strategies, methods, and materials designed to improve basic skills in the least restrictive environments.

Vocational Village High School, Portland, Oregon, under Principal Paul Erickson and ESL/Bilingual Supervisor Mary Fulton, where I planned, supervised, coordinated, recruited, wrote curriculum, counseled and taught in the ESL program, with special focus on vocational, technical and basic literacy skills for at-risk students.  I served on curriculum, rewards, assembly and multicultural committees.  I also taught a Cultural Arts course designed to increase multicultural understanding and to facilitate communication between mainstreamed students and ESL students.

Foxfire Summer Video Project, Wilson High School, Portland, Oregon, where I designed curriculum, taught and helped organize a summer video project for IRCO (International Refugee Center of Oregon) for ESL students in the district.  We produced a nationally recognized video focusing on the cultural arts of the ethnic groups involved in the project as well as the stories of refugee kids in our city.

Wilson High School, Portland, Oregon, under Principal Mike Hryciw, where I taught English, grades 9, 11, and 12, enjoyed producing a number of assemblies focusing on multicultural awareness and appreciation, served with a teacher decision-making group, and taught a calligraphy class.  After winning $60,000 worth of computer equipment for my school for curriculum I wrote for Intel, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, I also created a computer writing lab that I managed and in which I taught basic computer literacy courses.

Retired!  But I have continued to stay busy writing radio scripts for an award winning program (Wisdom of the Elders produced by Rose High Bear) segment called Tribal Rhythms on the music of Native Americans, and I completed work on another award winning program segment with producer Dmae Roberts (Crossing East) that began airing around the country in May, 2006 and focuses on the contributions of Asian Americans in this country throughout our history.  Both of these programs have been aired on National Public Radio (including Oregon Public Broadcasting), KBOO and other venues. 

I also help a growing number of friends purchase, set up, work with and maintain their computers, as well as create and do the writing for web pages for small businesses.  I taught a class for ONABEN (Oregon Native American Business and Entrepreneurial Network),  working with people who wanted to learn how to create web sites designed to sell their products online.  I work with Indian poet and storyteller Ed Edmo on his book and with his website, and I've managed the websites of Oglala Lakota artist Adrian Larvie, Skokomish master carver Pete Peterson, artist and singer KO-NA Foster Kalama of Warm Springs, and Cuban singer Xavier Tabera.  I am sad to say I no longer substitute teach for Portland Public Schools and North Clackamas schools.  My most recent large project was the delight of working with an African American alumnae sorority (Delta Sigma Theta) as their web mistress and photographer; this amazing group of elder women has managed to create, from an old 1960s gas station, a wonderful, sustainable ("green") community center in North Portland. 

I am a writer and dabble in the writing of poetry; I edit prose and poetry for various individuals/projects.  I create brochures, booklets, and other items.  I’ve even created a cd cover for a local blues band.  I’ve traveled to Canada, south of the border, China and Europe.  I have served on a number of boards of directors, among them Zonta Club of Portland and Portland Art Museum’s Native American Art Council, where I was editor of their newsletters, Alert and Focus, and served on the NAAC board of directors.

I have an interest in photography and use the pictures I take to make my own watercolor pictures.