I am a high school Arabic teacher at an inner-city school in Boston. I knew that I wanted to be a high school teacher ever since graduating from high school, but I also knew that I needed to learn more about the world and how it works before stepping into the classroom as a teacher. I wanted to build myself into the best teacher I could be — a teacher-scholar — and I have been working at this goal ever since leaving high school. Formal education is very important to me, both in terms of building my students' skills in negotiating higher education as well as my own experience. I have three master's degrees in linguistics and education and I recently finished coursework for a doctorate degree in education at Boston University.

My background in linguistics helps with breaking down Arabic grammar into pieces that my students can understand, but even more important is the experience of having been in school for so long. I have seen enough teaching that I have a rich fabric of models from which to distance myself, improvise, or copy. I also have had teaching experience in non-traditional systems, such as an alternative high school for at-risk students, a juvenile correction center for adjudicated boys, and a refugee camp. These experiences have taught me the value of non-linear curriculum design, and I have used this learning to support my students' particular learning needs.

I began learning Arabic shortly after graduating from Wesleyan University and continued my studies during graduate programs at Indiana, Harvard, and Boston Universities, and the summer language school at Middlebury College. I also focused on Finnish and its language family, and on the sign languages of Hungary and aboriginal Australia. I have always enjoyed learning while traveling; past trips have taken me to Hungary, Finland, and Australia, and most recently to Patagonia and the Middle East with my fiancée.

I am proud to serve the Boston community as a public high school teacher. Since joining Charlestown High School I have had the pleasure of co-advising the debate team, Japanese club, and Europe trip club, as well as the honor of representing the teachers as chair of the faculty senate. I also serve as a member of the Educator Advisory Council for the Outreach Center at the Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Advisory Council for the Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library.

Outside of teaching and studying, I enjoy traveling with my fiancée Raquel, a recently minted doctor who is training in internal medicine and pediatrics. We live with our cat, Francis, in Boston's historic North End neighborhood.