Introduction





** __About Me__ **

** Hello! My friends and family call me Suyin, but in the PG system, I go by Maria Opeda. I am one of two ESOL teachers at Seabrook ES. I like to think of myself as the voice and advocate of our English language learners (ELLs) and as a teacher with no boundaries. I came all the way from the Philippines to work as a teacher in the US. The past four years have been very enriching and rewarding. At Seabrook, there is an abundance of teachers who like to experiment with new things that enhance the teaching-learning processes in their classrooms and administration who encourages it. This makes collaboration much easier and teaching more fun. I am one lucky sensei. **

** __About My STEP Goals__ **

My motivation in joining STEP is a selfish one. I coveted those prized gadgets that STEP participants use in their classrooms. The only legit way was through STEP participating. So, imagine my excitement when I was asked to be in the team (to replace those who had backed out)!  So forgive me if my GOAL 1 is a selfish one. I just want to get my hands on those cool gadgets, especially the document camera. I may not have the document camera in my classroom yet, but I have a video cam. This is very handy and I’m using it a lot to videotape my NBPTS entries. Then, I will be one of the magic 5 in Seabrook who has a webcam sitting on their desktops or laptops!  My GOAL 2 was to develop a class website bring the school closer to the home. What is a teacher-with-no-boundaries without a classroom website! Since I am a self-proclaimed NoBo teacher, I must have a seamless classroom to match that. My other reason in developing a website is so that I would be able to share the instructional materials that I have created with other teachers in the global village. I have accessed other teachers’ materials, this would be an ingenious way to pay it forward. The worldwide web is a treasure chest of free instructional resources, but it takes hours and hours to search for something that you like, and when you do find one, you just want to share it with everyone; a website is a great place to store those links and share it with everybody – teachers, students, and parents alike.  Once I have accomplished GOAL 2, I would be able to get on GOAL 2B which is to show my students how to create and manage their own websites; and manage it according to set ethical standards. I envision self-motivated, self-directed, responsible students who hold themselves to the highest ethical and performance values. Hopefully, by being exposed to a project like this, they will begin to dream the improbable. What is it they say? IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN ACHIEVE IT.  My GOAL 3 is beginning a blog as a forum for students. I am an ESOL teacher. What better way is there to motivate students to read and write but to give them an authentic use for those skills: expressing their thoughts, opinions, and feelings about a topic, reading classmates’ views, giving and receiving feedback. Imagine the critical thinking skills that are involved in this type of activity!

 Children are naturally drawn to technology. And they might as well be. The only world that they know runs on technology - on WWW. So in this day and age of information, depriving them of the opportunity to develop technological skills – not only to navigate the web but to participate in its growth - is akin to watching them drown or waste away and not lifting a hand to save them. Which brings me to my GOAL 4 – which is so cliché among teachers, so I will say it in Latin. FACITE DIFERENTEM - to make a difference - in the lives of my students and in the world (wide web =)).