Introducing myself, Mr. Michael Ingerson, brand new blogger...

     My, name is Michael Ingerson.  I was born in Escondido, CA.   My first school was Oak Hill Elementary in Escondido.  I lived in Escondido until I was 7 years old when my father got a job at a school in Northern California, called Novato.  Novato is located in Marin County just north of San Francisco.  I moved in the summer and started second grade in Novato at Pleasant Valley Elementary.  I did a ten year stint in Novato graduating from Sinaloa Middle School and San Marin High Schools.  After graduating, I had to get out of Dodge (errr, Novato) and headed back to Southern California to Whittier College in Whittier, CA where I began my college career.  I wanted to be somewhere new but still loved California and my family.  I moved just far enough away to be not too far away.  My time at Whittier only lasted a year though.  It seems I had developed SMOG sickness and the doctors recommended that I get out before it was too late (okay, so I decided Northern California was just preferable to me).  Once back in Marin I decided to enroll at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park.  I commuted to Sonoma county to go to school for the next year and a half.  I graduated from Sonoma State in 1999 with a degree in Anthropology.  After a long hiatus, I have decided that teaching is what I really want to do and I am entering the Teaching Credential program at CSU San Marcos in the Fall of 2011.
     Technology has always come fairly easily to me (at least in terms was what I could get my hands on and afford).  I got my first computer in 1983 (an Apple IIGS limited edition signed by Steve Wozniak of Apple).  The unfortunate part is that this computer was all I had for many many years.  I think I was just the right age to experience the liberation of the World Wide Web.  Just as I was entering college I was exposed to all the things the internet can do.  Ever since then I have tried to stay abreast of all the newest technology.  I have been a Macintosh lover since my earliest days.  I have used them to get through school and run my business.  I have more recently used Windows machines for work but am still a believer in the superiority of Apple computers.  A few years back, I volunteered at a local elementary school repairing and upgrading old Macintosh computers.
     Although it did not affect my decision to attend CSUSM, I believe wholeheartedly in the mission statement and its focus on student-based education.  Teacher self-reflection and lifelong commitment to improvement is absolutely necessary in one's commitment to teaching.  We often hear about the need to remove old teachers from the system.  It is not really the fact that they are old that requires them to be removed.  It is the teachers that have become stagnant and that refuse to grow and evolve with the times that are the ones that need to move on.  Technology is so important because it is growing so fast and can allow teachers so many options for teaching and connecting with their students.  It is the beneficial for the teachers to make every effort to be as technologically savvy as any students they will be teaching.