Meet Professor Undertree

If I had to choose one word as my identity, it would be “teacher.”

“Good teaching is primarily an art, and it can neither be defined or standardized …

Good teachers are born and made; neither part of the process can be omitted. “


— Joel H. Hildebrand in an interview conducted shortly before his hundredth birthday

I love learning, and I have been fortunate to earn a M. A. in Linguistics, Certificate in TESL, Certificate in Reading, and B. A. in English.  I am planning to start a Technical Writing Certificate at UC Berkley in the future.  I love teaching, and since 1999, I have had the opportunity to tutor and teach both English and ESL in a variety of situations including business English, private ESL schools, California State University, University of California Irvine and multiple Community Colleges. Moreover, I have also tutored English writing improvement in one to one situations both in the academic community and for my own private students. I’m currently teaching at Irvine College Community College in the ESL and English departments. Before I became an educator, I lived in Mexico for two years; that experience helped me to become a better educator for non-native English speakers. Now, I am firmly planted in the Southern California soil and I plan to continue teaching here for many years; nonetheless, I also have dreams of helping students in the global online community develop their English skills through videos, lectures, and books. 

Yet, if I got to choose another word to represent myself, it would be fortunate. I’ve been married for 20+ years to Mr. C, a Californian native, who supports me in all I do… I have a wonderful tribe of family and friends who let me bounce ideas off them, help with me my projects, tell me when I’m overdoing it, and make me laugh a lot … I get to live in a wonderful country and within that one of the loveliest states… I have a wonderful career doing what I love… I have the wherewithal to pursue my passions and help others… I think I simply must be one of the luckiest women in the world.

2017 and 2018 were amazing years of growth for me. I  launched  published my first book in the GramEd series – Editing Academic Texts Advanced Verb Form, learned how to create a website in Word Press, took a class on grant writing, gave a poetry reading at UCI, hosted two school picnics, met with students every week Under the Tree, blogged all 2017, taught writing classes and in  writing labs, maintained my Facebook page,  started to post on Instagram at ccundertree and started my YouTube channel. Whew! Have I been busy or what?

In 2019, I plan to continue doing what I do, teaching, writing, videoing, living, and generally changing the world one person at a time. I will be continuing my video adventure on my YouTube channel CC Undertree with a weekly Wednesday Words of Wisdom video format similar to my previous Motivational Minutes as well as new class lectures for my college courses as the year progresses  I plan to be finished with the two verb books by the end of the year if not before; these will include student contributions for the first time, so if you are interested in participating, make sure to check out the Contribute page! I’m going back to my first love, writing in a monthly blog a Year Under the Tree with me.  Plus, I’m also going to focus heavily on my physical and mental health this year. This includes spending quality time with family and friends. And of course, I will make time for my students as I will be continuing Under the Tree in the fall semester at IVC on Thursdays from 2-3 pm where I and anyone who stops by can just chat about whatever we feel like at the time. I also plan to start doing some online video chat tutoring this year, so stay tuned for that. It’s going to be a great year!


Welcome Everyone to Coleman’s Classroom!
I hope you enjoy your stay here.