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​About the Author

About the Author

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I was taught from an early age the importance of being kind and fair, and that as well as making money, the purpose of working is to make the world a better place. How is this relevant? It is relevant when you learn about the school I work in and the final project I worked on for my Masters.

Harvest Middle School, Napa is 75% Latino and generally low-income. This website is about how to make sure technology is available to every child. This may sound simple on the surface, but is a lot more complex when you dig deeper.

My journey on this Masters program began with me being a beginner with technology. I learned how to type fast when I was in high school, and enjoy Facebook, but apart from using the computer for basic word processing, wasn't very computer savvy. But, as the mother of two teenagers who are constantly online and with teaching at a school steeped in 21st century learning, I knew that I needed to step-up and get with it, hence doing this Masters.

The initial focus for my Masters was researching how giving student's choice effects grit and engagement for ELLs. However, while doing this research, I discovered that without having the relevant tools, such as access to a device, there is no point in giving students choice of what to do... So, I changed the focus of my study to looking at the effectiveness of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program at Harvest Middle School, to ensure that every student had a device in the first place. On paper, BYOD is a fine system. But, what I quickly discovered is that the system has problems and there are details that need to be addressed in order for the system to truly bring equitable learning. Moving forward, my hope is to create a comprehensive system in which every child has access to the technology he or she requires in order to be successful.  

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Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program

There are several lasting leaving thoughts I would like to leave you with that stem from my experience doing the Master's program...
  1. Take risks. Whatever it is - education, trying technology, doing your Masters etc. As long as no-one is going to get hurt and it is going to benefit yourself and others, do it. Figure out how later.

  2. Love what you do. If you are bored, tired, frustrated with your job, teaching or whatever it is, change it. Either change yourself or change your career, but don't be miserable. It makes not only you be miserable, but all those around you as well.

  3. Create change. Don't sit back and allow situations to go on that you know are wrong or need changing. Even if you don't have the answers, bring up the problem so others can work with you to problem solve. 

TPACK Reflections on My Journey

I can compare my Master's journey as driving across the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. It was at once fascinating, scary, wonderful, breath-taking, interesting, frightening and awe-inspiring. I went from being someone who had a tenuous relationship with technology to someone not afraid to experiment and who often (but not always) came up with the desired results. 

TPACK: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
According to Teaching Teachers for the Future.edu.au, "the expert teacher needs to make creative links between what is being learned (content), how it is taught (pedagogy), and the appropriate tools (technology)." Thus, a first grade general education teacher is going to have a very different approach to integrating technology to a tenth grade Language & Literature teacher. To be a 21st century teacher, the teacher must be able to teach and implement relevant technology that not only assists learning, but that is vital to the learning.

In my classroom, I would give myself a 7.5 out of 10 for my TPACK skills as they stand at the moment. I started at HMS two years ago and prior to being there had used a computer basically for word processing (and Facebook!). I also have to admit that I was a slight technophobe or perhaps a technosnob - I was afraid of it and didn't see any benefit in using it. However, starting at HMS and being immersed in their 21st century pedagogy, I decided to do the Master’s class to kick start me on my technological journey. Which, indeed, it did!

Over this last year in my classroom, I have used a great deal of technology. All of my agendas, grading and HW is online. I receive student work via google.docs, and often have students work together to create one or a series of slides for vocabulary or new concepts. I recently did a unit in which students created weekly blogs for all their assignments. They also commented on their friend's blogs giving positive and constructive criticism which they loved. They did all of their research online. We use kahoot  for quizzes regularly. Many students read online and use the school online library to check out books. Reading is tracked online as well. All students use the internet as their main place of research, for their final unit they researched and profiled an issue important to them. Other teachers were shocked at how this would work, having 180 different topics, but it was not the topic that was important, that was a tool to engage the students. What was important was the skills they were learning; I have also used classdojo in the past as a classroom management system which was effective for that particular class.

All in all, I'm doing well, but completing the Master’s has shown me just how much more there is out there and how it is changing every day. So, I am excited about digging even deeper in the future!