About Me
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Greetings Dr. Lunsford and Fellow Classmates, My name is James
Michael Powell and I am originally from the Boston area, but I now live on
beautiful Whidbey Island in the state of Washington along with my sweetheart,
Dulie, whom I met nearly 4 years ago in an Ashford Café. Dulie was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer three years ago. It was then that I decided to relocate from Los Angeles to Washington to be by her side and to take care of her throughout a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction surgeries. It has been a long and difficult road, but Dulie "fights like a girl" and so far, has beaten this terrible disease. When cancer hits close to home, it takes on a whole different meaning; it becomes even more real. Together, we can all bring about awareness and support, and we can and will beat this thing.
We both
love animals and so we share our home with 3 dogs; an Australian Shepherd
(Moses), a Terrier mix (Dawson, aka Da-Da), and a Peagle (Pekinese/Beagle,
named Murphy), 1 tiger cat (Logan), 1 Lionhead rabbit (Daisy), 12 nameless,
laying hens, and 1 over-sized, one-eyed goldfish named Eileen. We are fortunate
to own land for our animals to roam, and I can say with certainty that I shall
never again eat a store-bought egg.
I earned
my Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Language Learner Studies with a minor in
Child Development here at Ashford University last December. I was shocked when
my diploma arrived saying that I had earned high honors, Magna Cum Laude. I only
ever completed the 9th grade, and that was 44 years ago in 1970. My
plan was to pursue a Master’s Degree in Education with a specialization in
English Language Learner Studies; however, recent health issues have somewhat
altered those plans. Since it is doubtful that I will be returning to the
physical classroom to teach, I have decided upon a Master’s Degree in Teaching
and Learning with Technology with a specialization in Online Educator. At the
moment, the only knowledge I have of using technology with education is what I
have learned here at Ashford as an online student. I am very excited about this new adventure!
I earned
a diploma in the Superior Level of English at the Official School of Languages
in Madrid where I went on to teach English as a second language for 3 years.
From there, I moved to Bolivia where I lived for 16 years. During that time, I
taught English in several language institutes while tutoring private lessons.
My diploma recognizes me as an English professor in Spain and in South America;
however, my credentials are not recognized in the United States, hence the reason I have returned to school. I studied
Spanish (or Castilian) for a year in Spain, which I began learning at the age
of 40.
Studying Spanish led to my love of language. I am fluent in Spanish now, and I understand some Portuguese, Italian, French, and German. Besides gaining a better knowledge of our first language in addition to our
second, a bilingual person is more marketable than a monolingual person, no
matter the field. In addition to teaching Language Arts, I would like to design
courses that will use the tools of technology, especially where English as a
second language will be needed. 
Now at
62, I remain passionate about teaching, while I love reading, writing,
traveling, gardening, cooking and fishing for salmon. I am pleased to recognize many
familiar names from our last course, Instructional Design & Delivery. I
am certain that this will be a fun and informative class and I look forward to
sharing with everybody in the discussion forum.
Kindly, James
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