CUE Innovative Educator

Welcome to my digital portfolio which I will use to document my progress through the CUE Innovative Educator Certificate (IEC) program in conjunction with Fresno Pacific University. I am committing myself to this 6-month program so that I can further develop my craft. I work for Mt. Diablo Unified School District and teach fourth grade at an excellent school in Pleasant Hill, CA. In my six years of teaching, I have gone from 0 student devices and one overhead transparency projector to 1:1 Chromebooks, an iPad, and an AppleTV with a large flat screen display. These are some pretty dramatic changes in a relatively short amount of time.

I love working with children and witnessing the moments when new discoveries and connections are made. The increase of technology in education allows students to interact with the world in amazing ways and I feel so fortunate to be an educator during this transformative time.

Before teaching, I worked as a Computer Aided Designer for Creative Costuming at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL, followed by a job as a Technical Designer for a women's clothing company in Berkeley, CA. In both of these roles, I used digital drafting programs to create patterns for clothing, engineered efficient use of fabric cutting layouts digitally, and communicated with factories around the world regarding specs and construction details of garments on a daily basis. I love the fact that I can use my background in technology to transform education for students and hopefully inspire both the girls and boys in my class to pursue STEAM related careers.

I was prompted to participate in this program due to the recent experiences I have had to provide site and district level training for other teachers. I thoroughly enjoy helping other teachers learn how to integrate technology successfully, and seeing the benefits of these tools spread out into other classrooms. My hope is that this program will help me clarify my personal philosophy on technology integration, and prepare myself to continue my teaching transformation as well as inspire other teachers at my site and district.