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About the Author
Welcome to my Master's website! I am a middle school science and language arts teacher at an arts integrated charter school nestled in the Northern California woods. I grew up spending my time in nature and playing with any electronics I could get my hands on. I was never the gaming type, instead, I spent my time taking the electronics apart and putting them back together. I loved getting to the "heart" of the item and trying to figure out what made it "tick."
In high school and college, I always found ways to make my projects technology based. I built a magnetic train for a science fair and used Excel to create graphs on the data I collected. I always had that spark for creating and designing. Science has always been a subject I am passionate about.
I graduated from Pacific Union College in Angwin, CA, with a B.S. in Liberal Studies, an SDA elementary teaching credential, and a CA multiple subject teaching credential. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher and I flew through college and my credential program in 3 years so that I could get out into the world and start sharing my passion with my students. After student teaching, subbing for half a year, and teaching 7th and 8th grade at a school in Napa for a year, I was offered the job of my dreams in Nevada City, CA. I always knew I wanted to end up back in my home town, but when the opportunity came I was shocked how quickly it had happened. My husband was so supportive and he helped me pack during his finals week and we moved home an hour after his college graduation. We currently live in a cabin in the woods that he is slowly remodeling. It is our dream home and we couldn't be happier! I am right where I need to be to not only complete my master's but also to implement the research I have done in hopes of creating an engaging and exciting curriculum for my students.
In high school and college, I always found ways to make my projects technology based. I built a magnetic train for a science fair and used Excel to create graphs on the data I collected. I always had that spark for creating and designing. Science has always been a subject I am passionate about.
I graduated from Pacific Union College in Angwin, CA, with a B.S. in Liberal Studies, an SDA elementary teaching credential, and a CA multiple subject teaching credential. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher and I flew through college and my credential program in 3 years so that I could get out into the world and start sharing my passion with my students. After student teaching, subbing for half a year, and teaching 7th and 8th grade at a school in Napa for a year, I was offered the job of my dreams in Nevada City, CA. I always knew I wanted to end up back in my home town, but when the opportunity came I was shocked how quickly it had happened. My husband was so supportive and he helped me pack during his finals week and we moved home an hour after his college graduation. We currently live in a cabin in the woods that he is slowly remodeling. It is our dream home and we couldn't be happier! I am right where I need to be to not only complete my master's but also to implement the research I have done in hopes of creating an engaging and exciting curriculum for my students.
Reflections on your Journey
After my student teaching and half a year of subbing, I starting teaching junior high. I taught all subjects, 7th and 8th grade, in a contained classroom. This was when I really began noticing that my students did not have that fire for science or for learning in general that I had in middle school. I realized that most of them cared more about what to Tweet then what to write for their English essay. They cared more about how to hack into a website's HTML than learning the Science behind machines. This fascination they had with technology is what really drove my action research for my master's at Touro University. I wanted to find a way to tap into that fascination and make it a learning experience, one that would spark a fire for science and technology together. We were not a STEM/STEAM school, so this was not a program the students had access to. Our science time was limited as I had to teach both grade levels in a contained classroom. This struggle made it difficult to really get into the heart of science. So I began with little things. I used a coding program during Science class and I used Google Classroom and Google Docs for Language Arts. We used an online Math program and I supplemented with SumDog and Khan Academy. Although these were just small applications of technology in the classroom, it was a start towards the bigger project that I began with my master's program.
Being in the program and being on this journey allowed me people to bounce ideas off of, a cohort that also had this desire to expand and learn, and teachers who knew effective ways to implement the things we were learning. Through this journey I struggled and I failed many times, but was constantly reminded that failure is the first step to success. I was reminded that teaching isn't just about getting the information from the book into the students' heads, but it is about creating a desire in their hearts to learn more and be more than they could ever imagine.
Being in the program and being on this journey allowed me people to bounce ideas off of, a cohort that also had this desire to expand and learn, and teachers who knew effective ways to implement the things we were learning. Through this journey I struggled and I failed many times, but was constantly reminded that failure is the first step to success. I was reminded that teaching isn't just about getting the information from the book into the students' heads, but it is about creating a desire in their hearts to learn more and be more than they could ever imagine.
Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program
Throughout the master's program, as I implemented different teaching strategies using technology, I found that I LOVED the technology driven classroom. I found a lot of teachers were worried that technology was going to take over their classrooms. I feel that the following quote really speaks to that fear:
“Fear not a classroom filled with technology. Instead fear one where the expectation is that technology will guide learning...for it will not. Only you guide your students’ journey. Technology will improve the transportation.” ~VanderG (2013)
Technology is our future. It has progressed and changed so much in the past few years alone that we truly have no idea what the next five, ten, fifteen years will look like for our world. Instead of being afraid of this change, I have learned to grasp it as an exciting adventure I get to go on with my students. I get to continue learning right along with them, and often they are the ones who teach me. I have learned that no matter what new teaching strategy or new application is thrown at me, the reason I am here is for the love I have for my kids and the passion I have for teaching and learning that I want to share and instill in them.
“Fear not a classroom filled with technology. Instead fear one where the expectation is that technology will guide learning...for it will not. Only you guide your students’ journey. Technology will improve the transportation.” ~VanderG (2013)
Technology is our future. It has progressed and changed so much in the past few years alone that we truly have no idea what the next five, ten, fifteen years will look like for our world. Instead of being afraid of this change, I have learned to grasp it as an exciting adventure I get to go on with my students. I get to continue learning right along with them, and often they are the ones who teach me. I have learned that no matter what new teaching strategy or new application is thrown at me, the reason I am here is for the love I have for my kids and the passion I have for teaching and learning that I want to share and instill in them.