Meet Angela.....

I was born to parents who lived by the philosophy "the more the merrier." And so it was…and 21 years later…they are responsible for 15 lives. Apparently they felt it was their job to populate the earth.

I was born in Santa Ana, California and soon moved to Escondido, California for a short year until my family finally moved to Valley Center, California when I was 3.5 years old. Valley Center became my home and playground for my entire adolescence. I began attending Valley Center Primary School when I was 6 years old and subsequently attended Valley Center Elementary Schools. . Prior to the start of my 5th grade year, my parents decided to home school me and my siblings. This was by far the least productive part of my schooling experience. Soon my parents enrolled us in The Classical Academy in Escondido, California, hoping this would be a better avenue. It obviously wasn’t because I was back attending Valley Center schools by 8th grade. I then went on to attend and graduate from Valley Center High School in 2005. Soon after my graduation I escaped from under my parent’s protective gazes and moved out on my own to Vista, California. I began attending Palomar College in the Fall of 2005. My Junior College experience has been the longest 6 years of my life. Working full time and completing as many classes in my spare time possible was pretty discouraging. But…..Here I am! A junior at CSUSM who can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Technology is one of the most amazing things about the world today. It is such a fast moving industry that it takes a bit of effort to keep up. I don’t know where I would be with out my cell phone, Kindle, laptop, internet or even my television. I do remember being a kid and only having a box television and a huge antenna outside. My family did not own a computer until I was in middle school and I did not own a cell phone until high school. I did not own my own computer until I was in college. The switch from dial up to T1 was a very memorable event. Thinking back to “the good ‘ol days,” my life was just fine without all of these technological devices. It’s kind of sad to say that I would be pretty lost without them today.

Even though the entire CSUSM College of Education Mission Statement is inspiring and respectable, the phrase that most struck to me was, “Our practices demonstrate a commitment to student-centered education…” In my opinion, commitment is one of the most important things in life. Without commitment, ones efforts to complete anything worthwhile would be wasted. I also believe that student-centered learning is extremely important in education. Giving a child the opportunity to not just be taught, but be learn in a variety of ways to expand their depth of learning is important.