ABOUT MS. DINH

I was born in Viet Nam and immigrated to the U.S. when I was 8 years old. My parents are refugees who've struggled all their lives to ensure that I received a good education.

That's why I became a teacher- to instill in my students the virtues, habits, and competencies that will help them persevere and succeed in school and life. I attended the University of San Francisco where I received my B.A. in Psychology, teaching credential, and Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language. I started my teaching career here at Orchard in 2007 and plan to end my teaching career in this wonderful community as well.

In my spare time, I enjoy traveling, volunteering, camping, reading, and playing board games. Besides teaching, I'm passionate about ensuring that underprivileged children in third world countries have access to education. I'm also very proud of my heritage and devote my Saturdays teaching at a Vietnamese School in order to help kids appreciate their culture and background.

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Success in learning is like crossing a rickety bridge. First, students need to make the decision to want to cross the bridge, which means that they must be motivated to learn. Then they have to walk safely across without falling and giving up, which means that they must persevere in learning.

Therefore, my role as an educator is to intensify students’ desire to cross the bridge, especially if they are afraid of failure or have no motivation in the first place. Thus, I design lessons that will capture students’ attention and appeal to their background knowledge and interests. I try to ensure that they understand why the content is relevant to their lives.  Once students realize the benefits of what they’re learning, they are more likely and willing to “cross the bridge.”

Another role as an educator is to add safety measures to make the bridge safer to cross for all students. I scaffold instruction through modeling, using visuals and realia, teaching academic language explicitly, telling stories as examples, providing clear directions in multiple ways, appealing to multiple ways of learning, employing graphic organizers, and engaging students in cooperative learning in order to ensure that students will not “fall” as they walk across the bridge. In addition, I incorporate problem-solving activities into my lessons to engage students in higher-order thinking skills. It is my hope that when faced with an obstacle in their path, students will be able to creatively and critically navigate through it and move forward.

Lastly, in order to prevent students from “giving up”, an educator must instill in students the virtues, habits, and competencies that will help them persevere. At the beginning of all my lessons, I announce the content objective to focus students’ attention on the end result of their learning. I guide them to set goals for themselves as well as to reflect on their strengths and how they can improve. I encourage them to try their personal best instead of comparing themselves to others.  My lessons will help them develop effective study habits, communication skills, teamwork skills, and leadership abilities that will boost their confidence in traversing the tough bridge of education.

Throughout it all, I will give one specific praise a day to each student so that they can understand that someone in this world loves them, is proud of their efforts, and believes that they can succeed in anything they set their minds to if they choose to work hard and have a growth mindset.