Why am I here?

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure........We are all meant to shine as children do. "-Coach Carter

My name is Alison Bell. The above quote perfectly captures the perspective in which inspires me to strive to attain the credentials required to teach high school students. My father is a recently retired Assistant Superintendent and he began his career as a high school teacher and coach. I have seen first hand what a huge positive impact a good educator can have on a students academic and personal life. I am choosing to enter in to the grade levels of high school because it is the last stop before the real world. So many children exit out of the education system feeling uninspired and without direction. I want to make a difference, I want to engage, I want to inspire those whom seem to care more about how many likes they get on Instagram than they do about who they are intrinsically. I want to be a part of relaying the importance of the Emotional Quotient and not just ones IQ.

I am a proud SDSU graduate and current post baccalaureate student at CSUSM whom is completing the prerequisite courses for the Single Subject Teaching Program. In addition to SDSU, I as well have an AA in fire technology from Miramar College. I have a fantastic child and prior to her arrival my career path was the in fire service. I currently co own a military intelligence related tech startup and have been teaching part time for 2.5 yrs in the VCPUSD. My career goals are; teach high school Social Sciences and P.E., take the admin route and or teach sections at the community college level and coach volleyball/basketball.

In my past and current career paths I have seen the positive impacts of technology. SDFD and other San Diego County fire agencies used to utilize paper EMS forms. This was always an issue for those who had less than desirable handwriting. The implementation of utilizing technology has saved time, made reports legible therefore incident documentation improved which protects the FF/Medics, the patients/public, increases the accuracy of statistical call analysis that allows for increased learning and as well as it saves tax payers dollars in the long run. Being involved in a tech startup allowed me to see how the government can ultimately use technology to improve communication between federal agencies as well as predict decision making matrices based on web movements in real-time. This saves time, money and more importantly saves lives! In education at the elementary school level I have seen how the utilization of classroom/take home Ipads has made teachers more accessible to the parents via systems such as HAIKU. Parents are now able to check on their child's performance, assignments and teacher notes at any time. This increased communication strengthens the connect between the parents and teachers. As well it opens up a whole new world of accessible information to children who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds.The children who in past whom normally would have fallen behind the technological learning curve due to not having home computer access now have equal access to a plethora of learning materials. In order to be an effective teacher one not only needs to be able in engage directly with the students but, as well in today's world a teacher must also be able to connect indirectly through technology in order to prepare students for  life beyond K-12.

 In closing, my goal with this course is to become more knowledgeable in the educational technology realm. I hope to access and gain the tools that will enable me to become a very effective, present and with the times kind of teacher that students can rely on inside and outside of the classroom. I have eclectic personal and professional experiences that I believe will possibly provide a different perspective to fellow classmates and in turn I look forward to learning from them as well. It appears that all of us have a goal of becoming the best teachers we can be and part of that includes inspiring through example via the virtual community that our future students are so well versed in.