I’m the director of the Foreign Language Resource Center and Associate Director of Language Instruction at Pomona College.
I earned a second master’s degree in Educational Technology at CSU Long Beach in May 2011. I had decided to enroll in the 2nd MA program as preparatory work for a Ph.D. in Instructional/Educational Technology with an emphasis in Foreign Language Learning. During the second year of the EdTech MA, I was hired by Pomona College to be the Director of their Foreign Language Resource Center. Ultimately, I decided to no longer pursue a Ph.D. since I was hired to do what I was planning to pursue by earning a doctorate degree. I haven’t completely ruled out the option of pursuing a Ph.D., I just haven’t found a program that would suit my needs.
My first master’s degree is in German Studies also from CSULB. During my time as a German Graduate student, I was given the opportunity to work as a Teaching Associate teaching and preparing my own German classes as well as studying abroad in Heidelberg, Germany for 1 year. During my time teaching, I taught 1 semester of first semester German and 2 semesters of second semester German. Being a TA allowed me the opportunity to see my students go from speaking no German to being able to hold a basic conversation, as well as traveling abroad. Seeing the progress that students made during the semester and the sense of accomplishment I could see in my students persuaded me to pursue a future career associated with education if teaching didn’t quite work out.
During this time I also continued to take the outdoors courses that CSULB offered so that I could earn a certificate in the Wilderness Studies. I began taking courses in this area during my BA studies and decided to continue due to the experiences I had in the courses as well as to give back to the program as one of their leaders. After my completion of the German MA and Certificate in Wilderness Studies, I had the great opportunity to be hired as a Lecturer for the Dept. of Kinesiology at CSULB and taught Rockclimbing and Kayaking for one semester while the wilderness studies instructor recovered from a minor accident. I would love to continue working in the outdoors field, but I just can’t see a way to combine the outdoors, languages, and technology.
Because of my passion for technology and teaching, I decided to pursue a second master’s degree in Educational Technology so that I can manage my own Language Center while simultaneously teaching languages. I’m looking forward to learning how I can integrate my two fields of expertise and working with language educators that are willing to experiment in integrating more technology in their classrooms.
I enjoyed my courses in the EdTech MA and while I might not have learned too many new tools given my previous experience, it was good to learn the theories behind the use of technology in the classroom. I have though taken the opportunity to integrate language into as many of my courses and class projects as I’ve been able to in order to continue combining my fields.
This site is intended as both a depository for projects that I’m working on in the field of technology, as well as an E-Portfolio of all the work that I have done in the program that I found fit to publish online including my own self-assessment of how I thought the project went and any improvements that I think I can make. Feel free to add any constructive comments or criticisms.