I was raised in Oceanside, CA so I mostly attended schools in Oceanside. During my elementary school years my parents had me attend several different schools because my mom was never satisfied with any one school and since my dad works in the schools as a custodian my parents could pick and choose which ones they wanted me to attend. I ended up attending Ditmar, South Oceanside, and Palmquist Elementary schools. My parents also worked in Carlsbad in two different elementary schools so I attended Jefferson Elementary school in Carlsbad for two years. By the time I had reached middle school my parents were certain which school they wanted me to attend, Jefferson Middle School in Oceanside, and I attended that school for three consecutive years.
Prior to high school my family moved to Vista, but my parents decided to allow me to attend Oceanside High School with my friends from middle school. However, I had to stay home a lot because of a health condition so I ended up attending Rancho Buena Vista High School in vista for a little while and I also took home hospital instruction through the Vista school district and independent study through the Oceanside school district. In the end I graduated and earned my diploma from Oceanside High school. My initial plan was to attend a university right out of high school, but with my poor attendance record I ended up having to attend a community college. I started out with Palomar College, but that didn’t work so I tried MiraCosta which was such a great match that I stayed and earned an A.A. degree preparing to earn a B.A. in the liberal studies major. Once I finished the course work necessary to transfer I started attending CSUSM.
I am pretty low on the technology continuum. I’m not the very lowest, I do know some things about computers, but I do not know a whole lot. The only experience I do have is everything I learned in the computer applications course that ROP offers to high school students. I took that class in my senior year of high school which was 2004. Basically, I know how to send e-mails, surf the internet, use power point, use a word processor, make spreadsheets (beginner style), upload documents and files, save files, and a few other things. I like computers, but I don’t love them. They are not of great interest to me. However, I will say that it fascinates me how easily one can learn how to use them just by browsing around which is how I learned most of what I know.
There are two things within the statement that stand out to me. One is …”is to collaboratively transform public education…” which has been my mission since I wanted to become a teacher. I have always thought a transformation in public education is necessary and I want to work with other educators to make that happen. I had not read the mission statement prior to applying to go to school here, but that is why I am choosing to stay and finish out my study here. The other thing that stands out to me about the statement is the word “life-long learning” because that has been another effort of mine since I was a young girl myself discovering the dream of becoming a teacher one day. I used to think about what I might like to do one day in the future and whenever I would think of teaching I would think of learning and so by the time I had reached middle school and at numerous points in my high school years where I struggled the most (due to health conditions) I decided I didn’t just want to be a teacher I wanted to be a life-long learner so that I could inspire other students to spend their lives learning and never stop desiring to learn.
