Dr. Maria I. Fleck

¡Bienvenidos a mi página! Below is a description of my background as a bilingual educator.

 

When I was four years old, I set up a soap box in the front patio of my house, stood up on it, and started giving "lessons" to the people walking by on the sidewalk. I played with dolls, but they were usually in a school setting and together with my cousins, we were the teachers.

 

There is a history of teaching in my family. My mother was a teacher, my father was a teacher, my sister is a teacher, my aunt/godmother was a teacher and Catholic school principal, and other assorted relatives were or still are teachers. I like to say that "I fell into teaching," but that is not as accurate as to say that, more specifically, I "fell into teaching Spanish."

 

I grew up bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate in English and Spanish. Living in the U.S., we spoke in Spanish at home, and living in Latin America, we spoke in English. I grew up in both the United States and Argentina. At the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, I earned a degree in English (teaching and literature), and I started teaching ESL. At the University of California, Davis, I earned a doctorate in Comparative Literature, and that is where I started teaching Spanish. I have been teaching Spanish ever since.

 

In my years of teaching Spanish, I have taught at the college level (everything from language, conversation, grammar and composition, to literature and linguistics), and at the high school level (the full range of Spanish 1 to 4, AP Spanish Language, and AP Spanish Literature, all for either native speakers or non-native speakers). I am passionate about teaching and learning, and I strive to do my best teaching every day. I look forward to an exciting year filled with new experiences for everyone who comes into my classroom.