Teresa Ozoa

I earned Single Subject (English) and Multiple Subject credentials in 1980 from Stanford's STEP program. I taught in Hawaii at Iolani School for two years. Believe it or not there were NO jobs to be had in California back then. Next, I attended UCLA Law School and practiced and edited legal publications in the SF Bay Area until my husband was transferred to Orange County. Here, as class-size reduction became law (yes, I'm old!), I reactivated my credential and taught second grade for several years before landing at University High School, where I've been since 2001.I've taught the gamut at Uni, but my favorite is an elective class called Contemporary Studies in Language and Literature, based on the Cal State Universities' Expository Reading and Writing Program. Focusing mostly on persuasion and rhetoric, this course helps me to keep exercising my legal analysis skills. My lawyer husband has often been a guest judge for mock appellate arguments in the job discrimination unit. I have also incorporated 20% TIme aka Genius Hour into my course. Students produce amazing work when permitted to choose their own learning.I'm an early adopter of technology and have a wonderful side gig of attending and presenting for CUE conferences. Quite frankly, I'm often the oldest person in the room. I have also presented workshops for UCI Writing Project and represented UCI WP as one of the California Writing Project's monthly persons of note.Finally, I am passionate about training students—our future citizen-advocates and policy-makers—in critical thinking. I begin most classes with a FACTUAL description of an image related to the day or current events BEFORE jumping to any conclusions about it. My students are learning that beginning with the conclusion closes their minds to other explanations for the same set of facts.At my 35th Reunion of my Stanford University class of 1979, I was honored to participate in a panel of 8 classmates who had taken unexpected paths (i.e. from law back to my calling as an educator).