Ms. Swinford
Ms. Swinford is the Visual Arts teacher at Pulaski International School and works with students from Kindergarten to 8th grade. Before Pulaski, Ms. Swinford taught middle school art at a Chicago Public School in Gage Park and worked for three years as an art teacher at a private residential treatment facility at the University of Chicago. Ms. Swinford has a Master’s degree in art education from Columbia College Chicago and has completed coursework for endorsements in special education and teaching English as a second language. Ms Swinford believes in the unique power of art education to transform the way students look at our world and is dedicated to fostering a commitment to social justice, self-discovery, and a love for learning that lasts a lifetime.
In addition to art and teaching, Ms. Swinford has a passion for travel. She has visited over 30 countries and helped to start a non-profit organization in Tanzania in 2010. Ms. Swinford initially traveled to Tanzania in 2008 as a volunteer English instructor and left motivated to help Tanzanian students gain access to quality education. She collaborated with two other educators to start EdPowerment (www.edpowerment.org), which is an education-based 501(c)3 in the United States. The organization supports a local community center in Moshi, Tanzania, sponsors over 50 Tanzanian students in high school and university, and works to advocate for individuals with intellectual disabilities throughout Tanzania. Ms. Swinford lived there for a year after she completed graduate school and returns each summer to run programs. She loves incorporating her experiences in Tanzania, and other countries around the world, with the lessons she teaches to students in her own classroom. If you’re lucky, she might even teach you how to say hello in Swahili :). |