Personal Introduction

As an idealogical 24 year old beginning a teaching credential, I was asked about my philosophy on education and I came up with this:  Philosophy.

I am currently the TK-12 History-Social Science Curriculum Specialist for San Diego Unified School District. My undergraduate major was Classical Humanities / Ancient History at San Diego State University and the University of Bristol, England. I have 14 years of classroom experience having taught 6-8 History-social science and English with SDUSD. I started my career teaching 7th-8th grade English-Language Arts at Gompers Secondary School from 2001-03 (before it became Gompers Academy). I spent 11 years at Pacific Beach Middle School, and one year at Knox Middle School differentiating instruction for 6-8 History-social science and ELA to regular, English learners, GATE Cluster, GATE Seminar, and students with a range of learning difficulties.  With a personal background that includes a private school education from K-8 and an extremely rigorous liberal arts degree, my strengths in education are not restricted to my content area, but include the process of learning itself.  In a district like San Diego Unified, which is contending with dropping enrollment and test scores, the need to engage our students and prepare them for success in 21st century America is dire.  For this reason, I was shocked to see how inconsistent the learning experiences of our students were from content area to content area and school to school.  Before 2006, science, math, and English teachers had disproportionate amounts of technology while social studies teachers were not even teaching in their content area, let alone preparing our students for a technological 21st  century world.  So, when I found out about Project Live, I applied immediately.

Project Live supplied me with a lap top, a video camera, tripod, wireless microphone, and a two-year program that included professional development and follow-up evaluation.  The goal of Project Live was to have teachers facilitate the production of standards-based, student-produced videos, which would then be submitted to the IVIE Awards for San Diego County.  The purpose was to increase students’ academic understanding.  During my first year of Project Live, I noticed that student engagement increased tenfold in the classes that produced videos.  Yes, student understanding of medieval history was enhanced by our videos, but in addition, students were excited, collaborated, and also acquired skills that will go way beyond the content standards.  Students learned how to film and edit videos which increased their technological capabilities and assisted in preparing them for the future.  Project Live sold me on the idea of implementing technology in my classroom.  After 10 years of “shopping” for the ideal Masters program, I learned of Educational Technology and became part of the first COMET group at SDSU.  My initial goal was to bring value to my content area on campus through the implementation of technology.  I thought that through technology, my students and colleagues would see how being engaged in social studies provides students with reading and critical thinking skills that lead to overall performance enhancement in all content areas for our under-performing population.  My long term goals include training social studies teachers in ways to implement technology specifically in social studies, and eventually taking these skills to the university level where I hope to use technological tools as a gateway to my true passion, which is the discipline of history.  I love history, I believe its understanding is crucial the the success of our nation, and I think the instruction of history needs to be brought into the 21st century if our citizens are expected to understand it and be engaged in it.  Fifteen years later, my philosophy of education has not changed, but my approach has and I suspect that pedagogy will constantly evolve with the times, a direct result of a classical humanist becoming a professional instructional designer.