After graduation in the fall of 1987, I spent the next few months traveling in France and working with my sister, Katie Anderson-Levitt, who is now an anthropology professor at UCLA. At the time, I was serving as a nanny for her children and a note-taker for her research on the cultures of education. I spent a lot of time note-taking in French first-grade (CP) classrooms. Upon my return to Tucson, I started full-time work at St. Gregory College Preparatory School, which at the time was St. Gregory High School. I have worked there continually since August 1988. I have taught all levels of French (French 1, 2, 3, AP Language and AP Literature, along with the occasional Francophone Literature and Cinema class), as well as Spanish, yearbook, and some humanities team-teaching short-term classes (such as “The Rythms of Africa”). I am currently head of the Language Department and advisor to the French Club. My plans are to continue doing what I am doing, as long as I am having this much fun. I am keeping up my fluency in Spanish by speaking with my colleagues and attending a Spanish conversation club once a week. I have a ten-year-old son who is in the International School of Tucson, studying French and Chinese. My connection to his school has piqued my interest in forming bridge between IST and St. Gregory. For example, we are looking into offering an advanced Spanish in middle school to accommodate both native speakers of Spanish and students who have graduated from IST and are already proficient in Spanish.
