I decided to become a teacher for inner-city elementary school students in downtown Los Angeles many years ago, after being bored and unfulfilled in the medical field, . It was the best move I ever made! Teaching is a constant challenge, and incredibly rewarding. And in teaching technology, I can be creative and learn new skills, as well as help students master the basics.

I obtained my California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential through the District Intern Program for the Los Angeles Unifed School District. I taught second grade for five years before becoming the Technology Coordinator for Hobart Blvd. Elementary School. As Technology Coordinator, I am in charge of two state-of-the-art computer labs, as well as all of the computers and equipment in 70+ classrooms. I oversee the Primary Lab, where I have an excellent aide who delivers my lessons, and I teach full-time in the Upper Grade Lab, which serves grades 3 though 5.

I love computers and technology, and I believe they are not only an excellent motivator for my students, but that they enhance learning and develop critical literacy skills.

My School

Hobart Boulevard Elementary School is located in Koreatown, near downtown Los Angeles. It serves approximately 900 students in Kindergarten through the Fifth grades.

My students are a mixture of Korean and Hispanic immigrants, and almost all of them speak English as a second language. Our school is a "Title 1" school, meaning most students at the school qualify for the free lunch program (economically disadvantaged). But don't let the titles mislead you--my students are capable of incredible things! My expectations for them are high, and they live up to my expectations.

Our Technology

We have two computer labs, one for primary students (Grades K-2) and one for upper grade students (Grades 3-5). The Primary Lab is equipped with 27 new Apple iMacs and the Upper Grade Lab is equipped with 35 new Apple iMacs and a high quality laser printer. Each regular classroom has 2-4 computers, and most are Mac (although we have some PCs as well). We have an Apple XServe, that I personally set up and maintain, as a central file server. We also have various other technology available to us, such as color laser printers, scanners and digital cameras. Finally, all labs and classrooms have high-speed Internet which will be wireless by the end of the year.

Hobart students get to come to the computer lab for 40 minutes each week. In that time, they do keyboarding practice, play educational software and online games to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom, and complete word-processing and multimedia projects tied in to the language arts and mathematics curriculum.

Click here to take a look at some upper grade web-based projects I designed to accompany Open Court, our language arts program.

Click here to take a look at some hotlists that I compiled which contain online games and activities that reinforce the curriculum. My students use these in the lab, in the classroom, and at home.

Please check out some of our finished projects here. Additional projects and portfolio work is available upon request.