Jamie has been teaching children languages for over 12 years. After earning her BA in Theater from the University of California at Santa Barbara, she moved to Paris where she started her first after-school club teaching and leading activities in English. Living in Paris reignited her passion for the French language, which was only amplified by her new interest in exploring foreign cultures.
She then spent over 7 years in Toulouse, France where she taught English to children ages 5-12 in the public school system and studied Language Acquisition at the Université de Toulouse II- Le Mirail. She also worked as an instructor at the local teacher’s college, preparing future teachers to teach English in their classrooms.
After moving to Portland in the fall of 2009, she was inspired to put her talents and passions in early childhood second language learning to use and started Culture Club. in 2016 she earned her Masters’s in Education in Curriculum and Instruction.
In addition to Culture Club, Jamie was formerly a French teacher at the Northwest Academy, has taught at the Alliance Française, and served as president of COFLT, the Oregon Association of World Language Teachers. She looks forward to sharing her enthusiasm for language learning with your children every day.
Angela has been working with children for over 10 years. She got her BA in English in China and then moved to Orlando, Florida in 2010, where she taught Chinese to children from 4 to 12 for two years. In 2013, she moved back to China to teach English in an international school. Her passion for teaching and working with young children has been growing ever since.
In 2015, she moved to Portland State University to pursue her Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Early Childhood Education to sharpen her skills in teaching and working with young children. At PSU, She was inspired by Reggio Emilia Approach, where teachers are encouraged to observe and document what children do and design their lesson plans accordingly. She believes that teaching young children a foreign language could also benefit from a lot of observation and documentation.
Angela worked at Helen Gordon Child Development Center for three years, where she put a lot of her learning into practice. Today, Angela is grateful for every moment she spends with young children; she loves to grow with her students in learning together.
