Vivian Chen's Portfolio Homepage
Student Biography and Information
Vivian Chen has always had a passion for supporting and helping children in marginalized populations. While earning her B.A. in History at UCLA, she was a camp counselor at UCLA’s Unicamp, a summer camp for underserved, low-income youth. She also worked at the non-profit organization, Children’s Nature Institute (previously Nursery Nature Walks), helping volunteers bring nature and environmental awareness to toddlers and preschool-aged children, as well as primary-aged students at urban schools. After graduating from UCLA, Vivian went on to earn her teaching credential from California State University at Los Angeles and her M. A. in Elementary Education. from California State University at Northridge. She is currently working toward an M.A. in Education and Tier 1 Administrative Services Credential from UCLA.
Vivian has been a social justice educator in urban Los Angeles schools since 1994. She began her teaching career teaching primary grades at Commonwealth Elementary School in the Rampart neighborhood of Los Angeles. There she taught first and second graders whose ethnic backgrounds included El Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Korean, Bangladeshi, and Egyptian. She has been teaching at Multnomah Elementary School in East Los Angeles for the last 15 years. In addition to teaching first and second graders in the neighborhood school, she has taught second through fifth grades in the gifted magnet school. As a leader at her school site, she serves as Grade Level Chairperson and has presented at numerous professional learning sessions on topics such as math, literacy, Habits of Mind, and creating a safe culture for LGBT students and families. Being a National Board Certified teacher, Vivian has also facilitated support sessions for her staff in completing National Board Certification. She has also served as a support provider and portfolio reviewer for new teachers in the BTSA Induction program. To further her own growth as an educator and share her enthusiasm for teaching, Vivian has led monthly book club meetings for professional reading at her home.Her main focus as an educator and leader is to create authentic learning communities for both her students and colleagues.
After completing her Administrative Services Credential, she plans to continue to provide a high quality education to her students and pursue opportunities to support teachers in improving their practice.
School Information
Established in 1949, Multnomah Elementary School is located at the foot of Ascot Hills in the East Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno. The school consists of three separate schools that function as one community. In addition to the neighborhood school, it includes the Multnomah Environmental Science Magnet and the Gifted Magnet. Within the neighborhood school is a deaf and hard of hearing program. Altogether Multnomah serves a little more than 500 students from pre-kindergarten to fifth grades. The student population is made up of 89.7% Hispanic or Latino, 5.3% Asian (including Filipino), 3.5 % White, and less than 1% each of all other ethnicities. Approximately 12% of students receive special education services and 19% of the students are English Learners. Almost 80% of our students are considered economically disadvantaged. Although our school was named a California Distinguished School in 2006 and we have consistently increased our score on the Academic Performance Index, we are currently in the second year of Program Improvement status. Our school staff continues to strive toward our mission and vision:
Multnomah Mission Statement:
Multnomah Elementary School will effectively educate all students to reach their potential as learners and citizens.
Multnomah Vision Statement:
Multnomah Elementary School will be a safe and nurturing environment in which all stakeholders will work together to develop academic excellence, responsible citizens and life long learners.
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