Introductory Letter to Kathleen Sand (EDUC 422-05)

My name is Kathleen Sand and I live in Poway with my husband, daughter who attends UCSD, and our two cats. I was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and attended K-8 elementary and high school there. I've attended colleges and universities in Iowa, Minnesota, California and Wisconsin. I received a BA in Music from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and recently received an MM in Music from Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. I have also taken certification courses in both Orff and Kodaly methodologies as well as in children's choral music.

My experience with technology is limited to email, searching the Internet with Mozilla Firefox, using word processing applications [Microsoft Office 2003 on a Dell laptop PC], and working with Finale 2008 for music software applications. In the music teaching positions I've held, I was lucky to have access to an overhead transparency projector and a xerox copy machine. In recent substitute teaching, I've used a Mac on a very limited basis, following specific instructions for a specific use. I love how the doc cams, computers, DVD's and CD's, and computer blackboard applications can all be integrated in the classroom, but don't have a clue as to how to accomplish that. I hope to become a bit more conversant and facile with at least some of these applications this semester. I am a PC person by access and experience, and would describe myself as technologically challenged (perhaps in some part due to the fact that I am a PC person and not a MAC person).

I believe that educational equity and collaborative learning can transform public education and our social systems to become havens of social justice for all. This sentiment in the CSUSM mission statement attracted me to this teaching credential program. As for life-long learning, we all need to KEEP ON GOING!