Engaging in Spanish With Digital Tools About the Author
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About the Author
I knew from a very young age that I wanted to work with children. After high school I began volunteering in classrooms and working in recreational summer camp programs. I enjoyed being in the classroom and loved helping students. Soon after I knew I wanted to be a teacher; a bilingual teacher. I received my BCLAD multiple subject teaching credential from California State University, Hayward (now renamed California State University, East Bay) in the spring of 2000. I began teaching in Hayward, California in a third grade bilingual classroom the following fall. After four years of teaching in Hayward, I moved to Sacramento, California and began teaching third grade in a two-way Spanish immersion school. At this school I was trained in using the GLAD strategies to help English language learners as well as Spanish language learners achieve academic success. After seven years of teaching in Sacramento, my family and I moved to Napa, California and I now have the privilege of teaching at Napa Valley Language Academy (NVLA). I have been teaching at this two-way Spanish immersion school since the fall of 2011.
I am a proud mother of two boys (14 and 10 years old). They both attended NVLA and will continue their path toward bilingualism in middle and high school. I believe in the importance and value of speaking more than one language. It helps bring different cultures together and helps students gain an appreciation for diversity. As the NVLA motto states, we are truly “Two languages, one heart."
I had been contemplating the idea of pursuing a Master’s degree for some time. In my mind it was not the right time, but it was actually my fear of going back to school. Many of my colleagues at NVLA had already gone through the program and helped convince me to join the program, and I am very glad that I did. I was pushed out of my comfort zone, but at the same time it helped me grow as an educator and as a person. Thanks to Napa Learns and the support of all of the Touro staff, I was able to accomplish my goal.
I am a proud mother of two boys (14 and 10 years old). They both attended NVLA and will continue their path toward bilingualism in middle and high school. I believe in the importance and value of speaking more than one language. It helps bring different cultures together and helps students gain an appreciation for diversity. As the NVLA motto states, we are truly “Two languages, one heart."
I had been contemplating the idea of pursuing a Master’s degree for some time. In my mind it was not the right time, but it was actually my fear of going back to school. Many of my colleagues at NVLA had already gone through the program and helped convince me to join the program, and I am very glad that I did. I was pushed out of my comfort zone, but at the same time it helped me grow as an educator and as a person. Thanks to Napa Learns and the support of all of the Touro staff, I was able to accomplish my goal.
Reflections on My Journey and Lasting Learning From the Innovative Learning Program
Many teachers at my school have gone through the Touro Innovative Learning Masters program and they all encouraged me to do it also, but I always made excuses…”I don't have time...I can't right now...Maybe next year”...I finally decided that it was time, and embarked on this journey with the help and encouragement of my family and my 4th grade team. It has definitely been a challenge having to juggle work, motherhood and school, but I am glad that I finally decided to go for it. At the beginning I didn't think I was going to be able to go through with it, but now I look back and I am amazed at how much I was able to do. I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone by implementing more technology in the classroom. I have learned so much and it has already influenced my practice in the classroom. The videos we’ve watched and the articles we have read in all of the courses have all been very relevant and have made me reflect on my own practice. I have learned about new tools and strategies and have been reminded of things that I had forgotten. With all of the new knowledge, I now have more tools under my belt to help engage my students during English and Spanish instructional time. Whenever I plan lessons, I will keep in mind everything I have learned. An as I learn about new digital tools that are relevant to my classroom instruction, I will try to find ways to implement them in my classroom in a meaningful way. Because technology offers many tools that help students access and make sense of the learning, my students have responded very well to the digital tools I have implemented into the curriculum thus far. With technology students are able to access visuals, games, and apps. They are also able to collaborate and use their creativity. all of this makes the learning more engaging, meaningful and relevant. This has been a year in which I have found myself constantly reflecting on my teaching and making changes and adjustments along the way.
My TPACK Reflection
When I think about 21st Century skills I automatically think of technology. However, I have to remind myself that even though technology plays a very important part in our lives, the 4 C’s (collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking) are just as important. I feel that I do a pretty good job of integrating the 4 C’s, but lack much training and knowledge when it comes to technology.
As I watched Mishra’s video from the SITE conference, I began reflecting on my own experience with technology as an educator. This is my 18th year of teaching, so when I was going through the teaching credential program I never had to take a class about how to integrate technology in my lessons. The first ten years of my teaching experience, I didn’t really have access to computers in my classrooms or computer labs where I taught, so technology integration was not an expectation or an option. When I moved to Napa in 2011, I began teaching at NVLA which has 2 computer labs. This was my first experience of having a scheduled computer lab time where I would have to take my students to use the technology we had. I have to admit that I wouldn’t take my class every week at the beginning...and when I did take them, they played math games, typed up their essays or took the computerized assessments that they had to take and that was basically it. I really didn’t know what to have the students do while they were in the computer lab. I lacked training and knowledge. Once we started using Google docs as a school district, I slowly moved towards using technology a little bit more. For the past few years, aside from having access to the computer labs, I’ve had 12 Chromebooks in my class of 32 students. Having technology access in the classroom gave me a little more flexibility, and I began having the students work on research projects in groups and creating presentations using Google slides. This year went 1:1 in my grade level with Chromebooks. I am excited, but now I have to make sure I integrate them into my lessons in a meaningful way. Now that I have a better understanding of the SAMR model and TPACK framework, I feel a little more confident about what I need to do. I'm looking forward to having my students use a variety of digital tools. Because of this Master’s program, I have learned so much about what I can do with technology in the classroom. Nonetheless, I know there is so much more out there...I just have to take the risk and thoughtfully play with it.
As I watched Mishra’s video from the SITE conference, I began reflecting on my own experience with technology as an educator. This is my 18th year of teaching, so when I was going through the teaching credential program I never had to take a class about how to integrate technology in my lessons. The first ten years of my teaching experience, I didn’t really have access to computers in my classrooms or computer labs where I taught, so technology integration was not an expectation or an option. When I moved to Napa in 2011, I began teaching at NVLA which has 2 computer labs. This was my first experience of having a scheduled computer lab time where I would have to take my students to use the technology we had. I have to admit that I wouldn’t take my class every week at the beginning...and when I did take them, they played math games, typed up their essays or took the computerized assessments that they had to take and that was basically it. I really didn’t know what to have the students do while they were in the computer lab. I lacked training and knowledge. Once we started using Google docs as a school district, I slowly moved towards using technology a little bit more. For the past few years, aside from having access to the computer labs, I’ve had 12 Chromebooks in my class of 32 students. Having technology access in the classroom gave me a little more flexibility, and I began having the students work on research projects in groups and creating presentations using Google slides. This year went 1:1 in my grade level with Chromebooks. I am excited, but now I have to make sure I integrate them into my lessons in a meaningful way. Now that I have a better understanding of the SAMR model and TPACK framework, I feel a little more confident about what I need to do. I'm looking forward to having my students use a variety of digital tools. Because of this Master’s program, I have learned so much about what I can do with technology in the classroom. Nonetheless, I know there is so much more out there...I just have to take the risk and thoughtfully play with it.
Please click on the image to the right to visit my blog. It has all of my reflections from my journey in this program.