About Mary Beth

Mary Beth Johnson graduated from Lipscomb University in 2004 with a B.A. in Spanish Education in 2004.  After a year of teaching in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School System, she decided to put her teaching career on hold to move to Costa Rica to work on her Spanish for nine months.  During her time there, she also developed an interest in teaching English as a second language, so she returned to the United States and moved to Colorado to complete master’s degrees in Spanish and TESL/TEFL at Colorado State University. She then moved to Breckenridge, Colorado to begin a teaching position there and had her first experience teaching heritage learners.  After three years, she learned of an opportunity to return to Fort Collins and teach with Adrienne Brandenburg, a friend and colleague from her time at CSU, who was starting a heritage program.  Her third year there, she began teaching the third level of the heritage program.  She has given the following presentations with Adrienne:

• Tips for Working with Spanish Heritage Learners, AATSP Workshop, CU Denver, May 2016
• Practical Advice for Reaching Spanish Heritage Learners, CCFLT Loveland, February 2017 and February 2018
• The Nuts and Bolts of Designing a Secondary Spanish Heritage Speaker Curriculum, CCFLT Loveland, February 2018
• Spanish Literacy and the Lucy Calkins Writing Workshop, May 2018