Samantha Cush

I am trying to not feel lost in this class. I have so much to learn.

Joanna Monfort-Torres

Hello Fellow Teachers!
What a fantastic opportunity this to meet and work with you all. I look forward to getting to know you. I started teaching 6 years ago in New York. I have been teaching 1st grade for the past 3 years at Bullis Charter School in Los Altos. Now I am changing gears and moving down to Kinder this Autumn! Oh no! Integrating technology is a vital part of our school's mission (and my teaching philosophy) and I always seek new methods to do so. I've found that I learn the most from my colleagues in the field. See my class website here: http://web.mac.com/msmonforttorres

Travel is a must for me. I've just returned from Finland and Estonia. My next big trip is to Cambodia for Christmas. In my free time I get bitten by my puppy Bamboo and potter about in my new home in Boulder Creek, in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Donna Taylor

Hi Everyone,

My name is Donna and I am one of the facilitators for the middle school group at this year's institute. I have 25 years experience in teaching middle school Technology, Science, Health and Skills for Adolescence. I also have worked with students on the Graham Middle School yearbook and as a Student Activities coordinator. I retired 2 years ago this month, and work part-time at KCI as a college instructor and as a member of the KCI staff doing whatever needs to be done. I have been fortunate enough be part of the KCI vision since it began, and actually worked with Gay when she first conceived of the idea for a state-of-art professional development center where teachers are treated like the professionals they are. As you can see from the pictures above, I am also taking advantage of my semi-retirement to spend time with my family, including my 3 beautiful and billiant (if I do say so myself) granddaughters . I am looking forward to opening day tomorrow and to a year of working with all of you on your projects and further professional growth. See you there!

Gayle Britt

Hi Everyone!
I'm looking forward to working with you all. Here at the KCI I teach online and face-to-face classes, design curriculum, facilitate EWYL Fellows, etc. Having taught both middle school and high school, I'm very excited about the sharing that we'll have in the next three weeks.
So far this summer the big event in my life was my daughter's wedding July 1.
See you Monday.
Gayle

Samanta Cush

Hello everyone,

I am excited for our class to start and I just got a
new car so I will be enjoying breaking myself into the
commute from Santa Cruz. Chris has offered to post
this entry for me because I couldn't figure out the
blog thing on my own which shows how much I know about
technology, but I am eager to learn, and see this
class as a great opportunity to gain much needed
skills that will help both myself and my students in
the future. I am looking forward to meeting all of
you and working with you during this summer course.
See all of you on Monday.

Sincerely,
Samantha Cush

Thomas Ochoa

I'm a 6th grade Language Arts-Social Studies teacher at Crittenden Middle School in Mountain View. I teach with Naomi and Marisa, (see below). Prior to teaching, I earned my BA In Communications/Journalism at UC Berkeley. I worked in public relations and real estate, before earning my teaching credential at San Jose State in 2003.

I'm excited about the EWYL Program, and look forward to sharing ideas and visions. I'm passionate about the students in my community, and hope to enrich their learning through technology.

Most of my summer so far has been devoted to a rededication to body and mind and a little something called CI Training. My interests include exercise, social activism, music, documentaries, reading foreign policy/ political/cultural literature.

Ryan Freed

Hello All-
I am a fifth grade teacher at Nimitz Elementary in Sunnyvale, I have been at this school for three years and enjoying every minute of it. I am writing from my home town of Detroit, Michigan. I am really looking forward to meeting everyone and jumping into the technological world of education. Prior to teaching I worked at Apple computers and USA Rugby. I hope everyone is enjoying their time away and I look forward to learning new and exciting ways to implement technology in the classroom. Cheers!

-rf

Zack Long

Name: Zack Long
School: Graham Middle - Mountain View
Assignment: Sixth and Seventh Grade Science
Teaching History: 4 Years in Mountain View; 5 Years Previously in San Jose
Family Situation: Wife of Five Years: Sara; Son of Two Years: Isaac
Hobbies: Hiking; Playing Trains; Writing; Playing Hide-and-Seek;
Best Thing About Teaching: Getting to Know Loads of Ridiculous Students
Favorite Film: Goodfellas
Favorite Cheese: Swiss
Favorite Places to Hike in the Bay Area: Rancho San Antonio; Alum Rock Park; Almaden-Quicksilver
Favorite TV Program: The Office
Favorite Band: Wilco
Favorite Vegetable: Brussel Sprouts
Additional Interesting Fact: I've had Three Different Sets of Teeth In My Life
Favorite Number: 49... What are you, Bazooka Joe?

Rajeev Virmani

Hello everyone! My name is Rajeev Virmani and I teach math at Gunn High School in Palo Alto. I have been teaching for 5 years and am interested in learning about more ways to incorporate technology in my class. It was really nice to read all of the posts and I am looking forward to meeting everyone. I have been keeping busy this summer learning and relaxing. Last week I took an AP Statistics seminar as I will be teaching Statistics for the first time next year. I am looking forward to the EWYL program. See you all soon!

Naomi Eckmann

Hello everyone,
Well, I wish I had a great vacation that I was writing from! If my camera had been more cooperative, I would have had some great pictures from my PSCubed trip to the recyclery in San Mateo last week. It was either that or the wastewater treatment plant, but you wouldn't have been able to smell it anyway.

I teach 6th grade science at Crittenden with Marisa and Tommy. Last year was my first year, and I can't wait for a new crop of sweet pre-hormonal students. Before I was at Crittenden, I did my student teaching in Campbell in 8th grade science, and before that I worked at the CLIP program in Cupertino doing dual-immersion with Kindergarten and 4th/5th grade.

Before I realized I was a teacher, I did a program in web design and development in Rhode Island, where I ended up teaching a class I had just taken my last semester (or was it quarter?) and before that I was a Linguistics major in college.

If I have more time than expected this week, I might start reworking my science standards website, which should allow teachers to see how science concepts build from grade to grade. There are a few JavaScript details that need to be implemented, and the whole thing needs to have a visit from the beautician. I might actually get around to planning our wedding this week instead, though... after being engaged for a year or so I suppose it's time! The iPhone in the picture is the fiance's, not mine... it's actually his pre-release prototype. Aren't all you middle school teachers excited to confiscate these?

Jonathan Entous

Hi All,

My name is Jonathan Entous and I am very excited to be part of the EWYL 2007 cohort. There are so many ways that I want to integrate technology into my classroom and I hope that EWYL will be a great opportunity to make these dreams become reality. I have taught in Cupertino for the last 11 years. My first 7 years were at Portal Elementary where I might have met some of you who came to visit the technology demonstration school (formerly ACOT). After 6th grade was moved to the middle school, I followed them to teach for 2 years at Cupertino Middle School. Middle School was certainly a big jump from the elementary. When the opportunity came to be part of the Lawson Middle School staff I went for it. It was a great move, and I am happy to be doing EWYL with two other teachers from Lawson (Danielle and Jenn).

Its been great being on vacation for the last week or so after participating in the CUSD technology training. I am hoping to continue working on my skills during the three weeks of the program. I have some projects that I worked on for my master's degree that I am going to adapt for use on the computer.

See you in a week.

-Jon

Judy Okolie

Hi Everyone,

I just returned from a great trip to Corsica and am currently in Versailles, France, using a French keyboard where the keys are in different locations. In other words, this post will be short and I don't have a picture to attach, sorry. Anyway, when I am back at home, in the Bay Area, I teach at Tennyson High School in Hayward. My colleagues and I created CMMA, the Community Multimedia Academy, an SLC, which has grown over the last seven years. I am a Social Studies and Computer Multimedia teacher, and teach Multimedia, United States History and Ethnic Studies. One of the things I like about our program are the integrated units we teach and hope to gain new ideas in project based learning through the EWYL summer institute. I love working with other educators who are interested in technology and project based learning, so I am very exited about meeting all of you.

Outside of school, I enjoy spending time with my husband and two-year old son. After my family, my other interests are traveling to other countries, documentary films, walking through great cities-especially Chicago and London, Mac computers, and I absolutely love, This American Life, on public radio.