Intro Letter

Hello fellow bloggers…is that what we’re called? My name is Sally O’Neill and I am from Southern California! I was born and raised up in North Orange County where I went through elementary to high school in Los Alamitos. Many of you may have heard of this tiny town near Seal Beach…it is home to the Los Alamitos Race Track…which is like a second home to my family! I needed my space after high school so I went to SDSU for one whole semester!!! Way too much of a party school for me…. I could not handle the many late nights involved with living in Pacific Beach! So I transferred up to UC Irvine where I actually had a hard time finding a seat in the study hall! Big difference from SDSU to say the least! Here I doubled majored in English and Poli Sci before having a minor mental breakdown my senior year!!(Not really) So, instead of applying for law school, I took off to Maui and lived there for the next 5 years! During this time I was married, had my sweet daughter Kylie, and eventually my husband’s grad school moved us back to San Diego. Here I commuted up to UC Irvine to finish what I started, but ended up getting my BA in Social Studies. Very long I know…
Currently I’ve been teaching the Pre-K program for the past 9 years at a private school in Rancho Santa Fe, and I am so ready to dig in and teach middle school!

I like to think that I'm hip to technology, but I am only fooling myself. (Sad to say but my daughter had to help me with this blog!) I have a PC at home and a Mac for my classroom, which I rarely use because I cannot think when I have 18 children around me! I have the Office 2003 version and Windows Vista…is that bad? I am terrible at typing and wish I never ditched 7th period typing class in high school! Jeff is an excellent teacher and I am so thankful I am taking this class with him! He's a cool guy with a lot of patience! With that said…I know I can figure this all out.

Ah yes, the mission statement…I think that it is a fantastic idea to incorporate teaching educational equity and diversity. I learned in EDUC 364 that as educators we must think about the importance of diversity in our schools. So much depends on our mindset as teachers and how we communicate to the students. The COE mission statement was not a factor in choosing CSUSM, I had never thought much about it until now.