Ana_Watson,+student

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I am Ana, originally from Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina. I moved to Richmond, Virginia, in March 2000 to get married and to start my married life in USA. Leaving family, community and first language behind, I resumed my teaching career in the US- a carrer that had started in Argentina at a very young age. However, my vocation showed earlier than that. At the time when my three sisters were playing with dolls and tea parties, I was holding a piece of white chalk in my hand and pretending to be my pre-Kindergarten teacher and scribbling things on my portable black board. Curiously enough, I played the teacher and the headmaster. Sad witnesses to those early signs of leadership skills have been my siblings, my parents, cousins, friends and pets. My first teaching assignment was when I was 19 years old and was hired as a HS and MS part-time English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher at a bilingual K-12 school right across the street from my parents' home. Because I had passed the Cambridge University English Proficiency exams and I was in my second year in college with a major in Teaching EFL and a major in Scientific-Literary Translation in English-Spanish, I was allowed to be a teacher. From then on, I have never stopped. Life has also guided me through the paths of developing my love for languages, especially English. I fell in love with English at the same time I realized I wanted to be an educator... around 4 years old. My last teaching assignment was in Henrico High School, from 2000 to 2005, where I was the Spanish International Baccalaureate (IB) teacher, as well as the Department Chair for the World Languages Department. At the time, I was an IB trainer for the whole North America region, and IB Site Visitor and an IB Moderator. In addition, I was a textbook consultant for EMC Paradigm and a volunteer for the Department of Education, assisting in projects involving world languages and ESL. Where am I now? I have been an Educational Specialist for Henrico County Public Schools since 2005. I was the Specialist for World Languages and English as a Second Language (ESL )then, and in 2008 I went back to my first love in educational leadership: the International Baccalaureate Program. I will be forever grateful to my boss at central office who allowed me to make a lateral move and switch from ESL to IB. I am at the moment a consultant for the IB Organization, as well as an IBO trainer and site visitor again. During my journey, a life-changing experience happened to me- my son Gavin Diego Kristoffel was born. Since then, the workaholic in me had to shift gears to become the mom I had always wanted to be. Gavin completes me and my husband, and I am truly blessed for his presence and everything he teaches me every day. My husband and I live in a bilingual home, and Gavin's second language skills (Spanish) are reinforced in our two annual trips to Argentina. He is also exposed to Afrikaans, as that is my husband's first language. I enjoy traveling, baking and gardening. I also have a love for writing and for water sports. My immediate goal is to continue expanding the IB program in HCPS to give more and more kids access to this outstanding academic program of proven success. I also want to continue developing the learner in me and the leader in me, preserving the outlook in life that a child has before he/she reaches 7 years old. My happiest times as an educator, mother, sister, daughter, friend, colleague and wife are when I find the simplest joys in the universal meaning of life, duty, truth and peace. Welcome to my life!