Faculty Profiles

FACULTY FOCUS

Christina Alvarez

Middle School Spanish

What is your educational background?

I received my B.A. in Spanish and Psychology from Wake Forest and my MAT from Belmont University. I taught in Metro Nashville Public Schools for six years before coming to Ensworth and taught most recently at Hume-Fogg Academic High School for four years. During my tenure, I have taught every level of Spanish (Spanish I, II, III, IV, and AP Spanish Language & Culture).

How did you learn Spanish?

As a first-generation Cuban American, I learned Spanish at home from both of my parents and other family members. Then, I chose to major in it while at Wake Forest University.

What led you to Ensworth?

After graduating from Wake Forest, I moved to New York City for a year and then to Nashville with my now husband, an Ensworth alumnus. I had heard all about Ensworth for years and upon my arrival in Nashville, my mother-in-law, also an Ensworth alumna, connected me with Dr. Sarah Buchanan. Dr. Buchanan informed me that there was a need for a long-term Spanish substitute and, after interviewing, I joined Ensworth for several months during the 2009-2010 school year. My teaching experience at Ensworth encouraged me to enroll in the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Belmont and pursue licensure to teach Spanish. In 2018, I was hired for the same position in the same classroom in which I had previously been a long-term substitute teacher. I am very thankful to be a part of this amazing community and working alongside many of the same colleagues that had been here over a decade before.

What’s an interesting aspect of the Spanish language that most people may not know?

Inverted (or upside down) question marks and exclamation points are unique to the Spanish language. These helpful punctuation marks give the reader a warning sign and prepare them to read the sentence correctly as either a question or an exclamatory statement. In English, sentences start at the capital letter at the beginning and finish with the punctuation mark at the end. However, by placing the inverted punctuation at the beginning of the clause (it won’t always be at the front of the sentence) the reader has advanced notice and can modify their tone, if necessary.

Do you have any exciting plans for the upcoming school year?

I am excited to plan our second annual Hispanic Heritage Month assembly. Last year’s assembly was a wonderful opportunity to broaden our cultural awareness, and I anticipate this year’s celebration will be even better.

In the classroom, I look forward to reconnecting with our international pen-pals. In the past, we have had pen-pals in Ecuador and in Spain.

Share a few interesting facts about yourself.

• My oldest son will begin Kindergarten this upcoming school year as a third-generation Ensworth tiger.

• I have traveled to four different continents and over 18 different countries. I hope to add more destinations to this list soon!

How does the study of world languages positively impact students?

Learning other languages and understanding the culture of the people who speak them is a 21st Century skill that is vital to success in the global environment in which our students will live and work. Moreover, allowing our students to engage with other languages and cultures enables them to gain a more profound understanding of their own language and culture. To this end, I appreciate the flexibility to engage in skills-based learning approach within our curriculum at Ensworth.

FACULTY FOCUS

Dr. Andy Kelley

High School Chinese

List your previous relevant education and work experience.

I lived in China and worked at universities in China through my twenties as I worked on various graduate degrees in Education.

How did you get into teaching? And how did you get into teaching Chinese?

I originally became an English teacher in China because I loved literature and really wanted to go to China and travel to Asia. I had an opportunity to teach literature classes at a college in China and spent my free time traveling around China and other southeast Asian countries (Thailand and Cambodia). This teaching opportunity quickly turned into a language learning adventure for me. I clearly remember my first Chinese language lesson with my first tutor a few weeks after landing in Wuhan, where I learned how to read a train schedule and book my train tickets. Once I could do that, I was off and running, dreaming up and eventually going on countless adventures in China and beyond. My love for the language stemmed from my love of Chinese culture and connection with Chinese people in China. The move from teaching English to Chinese students to teaching Chinese to American students was about passing on the life-changing experience I had in China to young people with backgrounds that were more similar to mine. I was mentored to be a bridge-builder, and that is something I wanted to pass on.

What led you to Ensworth, specifically? How does the study of Chinese positively impact students?

Studying foreign languages, in general, is really good for the brain. Learning how to control and use a new system as a young adult that can allow you to move in the world and connect with people is one of life’s ultimate challenges for those of us that began our lives monolingual.

It also allows students to connect with people different from themselves. Language study can lead to travel and opens doors internationally for work and enjoyment. There is so much depth to Chinese culture: food, music, dance, sport, etc. The ways to get involved are almost endless.

Studying Chinese distinguishes them in the college application process. Usually, only about 50 to 60 students take the AP Chinese exam annually in the state of TN. Ensworth has had as many as 10 of those 50 recently.

The Ensworth China Trip (2013, 2014, 2017, and 2019) is my very favorite thing. It allows us to see two very different urban centers in China: Beijing and Zhengzhou (a central China hub of commerce and transportation). It also allows us to explore off-the-beatenpath sites in China like the oldest Buddhist temple in China, ancient capitals, and some of the most significant historical sites in the world. Watching students put their Chinese into action, bargaining for souvenirs, and ordering food in China has been a big-time highlight of the last ten years.

I was living and teaching in China while collecting dissertation data and writing during the 2009-2010 school year. My brother, Jon, then a Technology Specialist at Ensworth, told me about a Chinese teaching position that was opening up. In conversation with him and other leaders on campus, I started to learn more about the school via Skype while living in Tianjin. The early excitement and ability to build something new and innovative in the early years of the High School were highly intriguing to me. The more I talked with leadership about what they were building, the more I wanted to be involved.

What’s something about you that people may find interesting?

• While traveling in China my first year, I was able to go to Mt. Everest base camp on the Tibetan side of the mountain.

• My dissertation explored using an American-based social networking site in Chinese English language classes and how social media affected student language learning motivation and identity.

FACULTY FOCUS

Jennifer Toppins

Lower School Chinese

What is your educational background?

After attending Belmont University for undergrad, I moved to Shanghai, China where I received my M.A. from Fudan University. I then earned my M.Ed from Vanderbilt University. In addition to teaching Chinese at Ensworth, I have served as an ESL Adjunct Professor with Nashville State Community College and a Chinese Language Adjunct Professor with Belmont.

How did you get into teaching Chinese?

I was a latecomer to Chinese and to teaching. I began as a Chinese learner at Belmont as an undergraduate, mainly to fulfill a language requirement for my English literature degree, but I fell in love with the language and chose to declare a second major in it! I owe a lot of that inspiration to my professor, Dr. Joan Li, but I was also fascinated by the culture and wanted to learn more about their literary tradition. I came to teaching in a similar way: I had to fulfill a graduation requirement to complete an internship. I took a position working with the Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE), coordinating after-school activities for refugee and immigrant students in southeast Nashville. However, in my first week with NICE, we had a sudden influx of Spanish-speaking students who wanted to practice their English after school in the hopes of attending college. That became my responsibility, and suddenly, I was a teacher! Through that transition, I was guided by a very special mentor, Monica, who was ESL-certified and very passionate about equitable education for second language English learners.

How does the study of Chinese positively impact students?

I believe that even very young children can benefit from learning about the culture and traditions of another country. Chinese is a challenge in thinking outside of the box for any learner, and as a pictorial language, it can inspire young minds to see and think about language in a completely different way from English. Further, it can help them to develop empathy, appreciation, and respect for the ways of life of a radically different culture.

What are some interesting aspects of the Chinese language?

I mentioned that Chinese is a pictorial language, which is challenging for new learners to get used to. But our students learn at Ensworth that each symbol (“character”) is actually made up of smaller pictures called “radicals,” and that with enough recognition of these radicals, they can build up literacy in Chinese really rapidly. In this way, Chinese is actually similar to English with its reliance on Greek and Latin roots. Another difference—one that I’ve enjoyed a lot as a learner—is that Chinese doesn’t conjugate, or change the verb form to show tense. That is, no “am, is, are, was, were” to memorize for every verb. You just learn one verb, and it never changes! Trust me, this is a big deal for learning a language.

Do you have any exciting plans for the upcoming school year?

Edimary Morales and I are opening up our new World Language classrooms in the renovated Lower School space! We’re really thrilled to get to work setting up the new classrooms so we can accomplish big dreams with our students.

What led you to Ensworth?

I graduated from Vanderbilt in May 2021, and I was looking for a strong institution where I could grow as a teacher. I was attracted to Ensworth because of its welcoming atmosphere, its openness to creativity and collaboration, and the opportunity to work with younger students. I found that the children’s curiosity and joy for learning reminded me a lot of myself when I first began to learn Chinese.

What’s something about you that people may find interesting?

Moving to China in 2015 was the first time I’d been on a plane. I went by myself and stayed five months! At the time, my Chinese was atrocious, and I could barely get around my new city. On my first day in China, I got hopelessly lost in the middle of the night, but a very kind taxi driver helped me find my university stay. If it weren’t for him, I might still be wandering around there.