David Gates

Background

About David Gates

I have spent my entire adult life in the field of education. I have work with children as young as three years old and adults well into their senior years. I have taught in public schools, private institutions. I have had the pleasure of working with elementary, secondary, and post-secondary students from all over the world. I have worked with students with extremely diverse ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. I have previously studied and taught in France, Japan, and the USA. For the last six years, I have been teaching internationally at Fukuoka International School in Japan. I love bringing my undergraduate studies in linguistic and cultural anthropology into my classroom to help create more culturally and linguistically responsive learning environments. In my very limited free time, I enjoy a wide range of activities including spending time with my wife and 3rd-grade son, playing and designing board games and tabletop games (I hope to eventually share many of the games I have and am designing to support language learners with other teachers via this website), tinkering with electronics, stop-motion animation, videography, reading science fiction and graphic novels, writing, cooking international dishes, playing video games, and studying languages (I have previously studied French, German, Spanish, and Japanese). My philosophy of education and learning is thus centered around helping to empower students, and teachers by providing them with the tools and skills that they needed to succeed and reach their goals. I want to empower my students to be positive members of society who are able to achieve their dreams. I hope to help teach teachers better understand how multilingual students are not detriments in the classroom, but rather assets for our schools and communities.