My name is Elspeth Allen. I just got married on June 2, 2007 and my husband and I live in Van Nuys. When my husband was apartment-hunting before we got married, he chose one with a big kitchen because he knows I like to cook. I enjoy experimenting with a variety of cuisines and I devour cookbooks like candy. A big kitchen is also an asset for two of my other hobbies: soap- and candle-making. My favorite soap that I make is Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey because of its wonderful sweet almond fragrance.
I graduated from
I try to squeeze out at least a few minutes every day to read a novel. I will read works from almost every fiction genre but fantasy is my favorite. I especially enjoy the books of JK Rowling, Robin Hobb, Madeleine L’Engle, and Patricia C. Wrede.
I am currently working towards my
multiple subject teaching credential via the ACT program at
I think it is important for teachers to reach every student in their classes, to the best of their abilities. I think that the best teachers present content at a speed that is appropriate for most students, while simultaneously providing extra learning scaffolds for struggling students and giving additional challenges to more advanced students. I strongly support the use of concrete activities in the classroom, both because they make abstract concepts more accessible to children and because they show children real-world applications of what they are learning (and hence show them why it is worth learning).
This website is a project for a
class called Basic Technology Methods that is designed to instruct future
teachers in technologies that will be useful to them as teachers. The
“portfolio” link below links to a page
with links to all of the assignments that I have completed for this
class.
