Christine Kim's Portfolio Homepage

Bio/Personal Experience

My identity as a fully bicultural/bilingual Korean-American female with an immigrant background shapes my life and informs my practice as an educator.  I was ten years old when I immigrated to Los Angeles from South Korea.  I was enrolled in an urban elementary school in the heart of Korea Town.  Before this experience, I had never interacted with so many different cultures and languages.  The diversity in my first school experience in the United States was a positive, vibrant one from which I realized that diversity is a strength and an asset.  However, as a middle school student, I was bused to a magnet school in the suburbs with a very homogenous and affluent student population.  Although the school provided many more resources, my first few months there introduced me to the notion of deficit thinking.  Through my young adulthood, I struggled with assimilation issues in the light of my bicultural identity.  As a result, after graduating from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a specialization in Diversified Liberal Arts Program (’96), I pursued a Master of Education degree from UCLA through the Teacher Education Program (TEP) and began teaching at Billy Mitchell Elementary School in Lawndale, CA (’99).  The knowledge and insight I gained through my TEP coursework provided me with tools to work through issues of equity in the classroom.

In 2006, I decided to take a two-year leave of absence from Billy Mitchell Elementary School to pursue a Master of Arts degree in Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA.  I wanted to delve more into the implications and nuances of being bicultural.  Through this program I traveled to Korea to finish my Master’s coursework in Korean Culture and Language.  This personal journey solidified my belief that diverse linguistic, cultural experiences in public schools is one of the best learning environments for students, and also that schools need to value the capital that many immigrant families bring to school.

Since my return to teaching in 2008, I worked in the primary grade levels.  My vision to provide equitable educational opportunities in the classroom led to me to implement a balanced literacy program using the Teacher’s College workshop models in reading and writing.  This experience in teaching literacy in the primary levels reinforced my belief that all educators, especially those who teach in urban schools, must understand the intricacies and the relationships between cultures, biases, and language acquisition.  In 2015, I obtained a Master in Education and a Tier I Administrative Credential from UCLA’s Principal Leadership Institute (PLI).  In whatever facet, I hope to use the skills and knowledge I have gained in the PLI program to promote social justice for marginalized communities in schools.

School Context

Billy Mitchell Elementary School is a public school located in Lawndale within the small Lawndale Elementary School District.  Billy Mitchell focuses on a collaborative learning environment, celebrates the uniqueness of all its members and strives to provide a balanced curriculum with current technological innovations and resources.  Mitchell is dedicated to inclusive practices and collaboration between all teachers and stakeholders. At Mitchell, it is important for general education teachers and Special Day Class (SDC) teachers to collaborate.  For example, I work with my first grade colleagues, including the first grade SDC teacher, to practice inclusion in our classrooms.

Parents and community involvement is welcomed and encouraged through many activities throughout the year.  Mitchell’s commitment to provide a balanced curriculum is practiced with our partnership with P.S. Arts program.  P.S. Arts provides arts education to students in underfunded school districts.  The school also strives to meet the needs of the whole child by providing social services through a partnership with the USC School of Social work that provides counseling services to students, creating an optimal environment for learning.

Enrollment/Demographics

Total Enrollment 2014-2015: 586 Students

Enrollment by Grade

Enrollment by Demographics