“When one is building a ship, one does not begin with gathering timber and cutting planks, but rather by arousing in people the yearning for the great wide sea.”
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Welcome to Mary Jean C. Sullivan’s
Master of Arts in Teaching e-portfolio site!
About Me:
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to teach a college course for three semesters at New York Institute of Technology. I fell in love with being in the classroom. While I’ve enjoyed a career as a university financial aid director, the administrative side of education does not offer many opportunities to exercise my creative muscle or develop lasting connections with students. However, my experience as an educator was stimulating and energizing. Getting to know my students and watching them develop skills throughout the semester was extremely satisfying, which is why I am pursuing a license to teach English to students in grades 6 through 12. I cannot wait to get back into the classroom!
My goal is to improve my students’ literacy and communication skills while fostering a love for reading and writing. By creatively introducing concepts and relating new ideas to what they already know, I hope to inspire my students to see the value of improving their English skills, especially if English Language Arts has not been their favorite subject in the past.
A native New Yorker, I moved to the Roanoke Valley over a decade ago, trading bagels for biscuits. I absolutely love the beauty of the Southwestern Virginia landscape, which inspired me to become a certified Virginia Master Naturalist. When I’m not tethered to a laptop for work or class purposes, I enjoy bird watching and going to the movies with my husband, Jeff.
If you would like to learn more about my philosophy of education, you may access it here.
To see an example of a financial aid related training video I created for high school students and parents, which has been viewed over 15,000 times, please watch the video below: