Melissa DaPonte Katz
My blogs
| Location | Boston, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Introduction | I am a teacher and professional writer. My primary interests include cross-cultural communication and urban affairs. I hold an M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where I concentrated on the cultural context of education, and a B.A. in writing. I'm licensed by the state of Massachusetts as a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) for grades PreK-9 and currently teach ESL in an urban district. I have previously worked as a full-time and freelance journalist as well as a writer/editor at The Education Alliance at Brown University. At Brown, my department focused on research related to cultural and linguistic minorities in the Northeast. |
| Interests | My primary interest is in cross-cultural communication. As a journalist, I've written predominantly about community and economic development in the so-called "Gateway Cities" of Massachusetts (the post-industrial cities that have historically served as gateways to the American Dream for immigrants). As a teacher, I'm most interested in how to effectively adapt challenging curriculum materials for English language learners. I am also interested in how to bridge educational theory and practice. I'm the creator and former editor of "Voices from the Field," a teacher-written periodical produced by The Education Alliance at Brown. In the past, I've also been a regular contributor to "The Knowledge Loom," writing about best practices in education and success stories from schools around the nation. |