Growth Assessment 2

Nicole Lopez EDUC 526 Growth Assessment Page 1
Azusa Campus Spring 2 May/2014

I Am Who I Am Because I Was Who I Was
Nicole Lopez
EDUC 526 Capstone Experience in Digital Teaching and Learning
Jennifer Courduff
Azusa Pacific University, Azusa Campus
May 12, 2014


SECTION ONE
Introduction
When I decided to enter the masters program for Special Education and
Educational Technology, I was at a pivotal point in my career. I had been part of a
design team that opened a brand new school in LAUSD the year prior to applying.
Seven of us were working at another high school and came together during a
teacher-led reform in LAUSD to write a proposal for a new arts school in LAUSD. We
wrote the proposal over a two-year period, trying to create, on paper, the ideal arts
school. We submitted the proposal to the district and were accepted to open our
new school for the 2011-2012 school year. Our visions came to life the fall of 2011,
when our school opened its doors and became one of the first pilot schools in
LAUSD. We are a small high school, no more than 500 students, on the campus with
3 other small high schools. We share facilities and sports teams with the other high
schools, but each school is completely separate in staff, administration, bell
schedules, vision, and mission. We are now finishing our third school year and
becoming a magnet school next year. We will be the first magnet, pilot school in
LAUSD. We are also starting a foundation to help us fund the school, and have the
goal of being an innovative arts school that is known throughout the nation.
After opening a school, I was motivated to finally get my masters degree.
When I graduated high school, I immediately went to college, finished in four years,
took a year off, and then began my teaching credential in special education. I was
able to work as a teacher and go to school to get my credential as a university intern.

Upon completion of my credential, I was shy of a few masters classes, but was
completely burnt out. I couldnt eat that last bit on my plate because my stomach
was too full.
I worked, enjoyed my 7 hour work days without having to go to class for 4
more hours after work, and gained a great deal of experience. I was able to help out
with clubs and sports, and then, when we began writing our proposal, I put in the
extra hours after work developing a new school. The experience I gained in the field
after I received my credential was worth more than the university experience. But,
at the same time, my desire to get my masters degree didnt subside.
I have been working as a teacher in LAUSD for 14 years. Fourteen years ago,
I had the best flip phone out there and I was fortunate enough to have 4 desktop
computers that worked most of the time in my classroom. As my teaching years
progressed, so did technology. Phones became a classroom management issue
when I started teaching high school, Internet access was an issue, and cameras and
video cameras were more relevant. Technology crept up on me and then sped past
me. I tried to keep up, but was always one step behind the high school students.
When we began our new school, we were given a brand new campus. Projectors
were mounted into the ceiling; cabinets were used for audio and visual equipment,
rather than books or supplies. One of the decisions we had to make was whether we
wanted to be a PC school or a Mac school. As an arts school, we went with the Macs.
A year and a half into opening the school, we were chosen as one of the schools to
pilot the iPad program LAUSD initiated. With technology controlling my curriculum,
when I looked into grad programs, the Special Education and Educational

Technology program was the one I felt would be most beneficial in my career.
Fortunately, now on the back end of this grad school journey, I know I made the
right decision.

Personal Growth
When I began the application process, I was unaware that the next two years
would be the most difficult years of my life. I entered this journey wondering where
my life was going. I wondered so much where my life was going, that I didnt
appreciate where my life was at the moment. These two years have taught me to live
in the moment; to appreciate every sound, smell, sight, emotion, and movement that
happens right now.
You know the saying, things happen for a reason. The journey Im about to
take you on happened for a reason. The timing of me going to graduate school
during this particular time, the exact two years I experienced the unbelievable was
on purpose. At the time I submitted the application, I did not understand why this
timing was on purpose. I was confused spiritually. I was unaware about what life
was. I wasnt convinced that there is a God, that there is a higher being that watches
over us, that the universe and our existence goes beyond the earth we place our feet
upon. After the events of the last two years, my thoughts have changed. I believe in
my soul and my life now. The path I lead is the path that I was meant to lead. The
people around me, my family, friends, students, co-workers, have more meaning to
me. I entered this program blind to the significance of my place in the world. I leave

this program with eyes wide open. My presence in the classroom has grown, my
presence in the world has grown, and I have grown as a human being.
When I began my application, I found out I was pregnant. About a month
after finding out I was pregnant, the father of the baby decided to leave town in
pursuit of a career as a stuntman in New Orleans. We kept in touch for a couple
months, but I realized I was the only one trying to continue the communication. He
stopped contacting me and I was left to reflect on the fact that I was completely solo
in my pregnancy.
As I progressed through my first semester of grad school so did my
pregnancy. I am not one to have small babies. My first-born weighed 11 lbs. 8oz.
My second weighed 10 lbs. 1 oz. The first class I took was the Digital Video class
Walking around, filming commercials at work, and trying to learn information that
was foreign to me prior to taking his class was a bit of a challenge, but I persevered.
I gave birth in December and lowered my workload to one online class in Fall 2 and
one online class in Spring 1. Upon giving birth, I immediately had a new respect for
single mothers. Going to grad school and raising two children, one being a newborn,
was extremely tiring. After putting them both to bed, I would still have to log onto a
computer and think for the next couple of hours. One of the most difficult things to
have to do is think after 14 hours of non-stop action. Wake up, work with students
with learning disabilities and behavior problems, pick up kids, feed them, feed
myself, bathe them, stop the crying, make them happy, love them, put them to bed,
sigh a relief (for a second), turn on the computer, and think. What did I learn from

that? How did I cope with the pressure? How did I stay awake and think after a
long day? Determination to prove I could do it. Perseverance. Coffee.
When my baby was 4 months old, I asked her father to come back into her
life. To stop being a coward, man up, and come back into her life. Harsh, but it
worked. He did. He grew to love her and tried to help me out as much as he could.
We took her up to see her grandmother in Washington, and I met her grandma, his
mom, for the first time. Life was seemingly normal. One day in October of 2013, my
babys father told me that he realized something. He said he had fallen in love with
his daughter. From denial of having a daughter, running away from the situation, to
falling in love with her. It was a breaking point for him, and I felt that at least my
daughter would know her father and there was hope that he would be there for her
in some capacity. A week after he told me this news, he was killed in a motorcycle
accident. In a minutes time, my worries, frustrations, hopes, and fears of what kind
of relationship my daughter would have with her father ended. There was
immediate regretful, thankful, sorrowful silence in my life. A silence that was
broken with the looming 10-page research paper I had to write and a WebQuest I
had to build for EDUC 512.
I saw my babys grandmother for the second time in my life when she came
to close her sons book of life. We cried and laughed, loved and talked. I had to
pause my sorrow and pain to write my research paper. I was given 4 extra days,
beyond the due date, to turn it in. Life around me did not pause. Life did not allow
me to take a step back. I picked up my kids, bathed them, fed them, loved them, held
them, and cried peacefully so they didnt see or hear my pain. I continued on with

life, with grad school and with work, trying to not think about the day my daughter
asks about her father. She was only 10 months old when he died. He knew her, but
she didnt know him.
What does this degree mean to me at a personal level? The completion of
this degree defines who I am. It defines my strength, my perseverance, and my
willingness to succeed. I was given a challenge, a rite of passage, to find my self,
soul, and spirit. I am who I am today because I was who I was yesterday.

Professional Growth
When I was given the opportunity to be a part of a design team, to write a
proposal for a new school, I jumped at the opportunity. The experience and
knowledge I have gained in designing and opening a brand new school has
surpassed all of the goals and accomplishments I ever dreamed possible. Writing a
proposal for a dream school is one thing, but to see it come alive in the last three
years has been a surreal experience.
When we began the school, the special education department consisted of me
and another colleague. We were given the freedom to develop and implement our
own special education program. We were also given an extra workload because we
were the coordinators, department chairs, IEP clerks, and secretaries. We had to
not only take on the load of 25-30 students on our caseload, but also do all of the
paperwork for these students from beginning to end. Having a small department
and working directly with the district and service providers as taught me a lot about
the administrative side of special education. Ive also had parents take IEPs to due

process, so had to learn more about the legal side of special education. I took a
course on Special Education law and it was extremely beneficial when I was working
with the more difficult IEPs that were looked at with a magnifying glass.
Being a pilot school, we have a small number of students, which also means a
small number of staff, clerical, and administration positions. We do no come to
work, walk into our classrooms, shut the door and do our own thing. We are
required to sign an Election to Work Agreement. In signing this contract we are
agreeing to work hours beyond that of our normal workday. We are expected to
join committees, start clubs, and attend events. Our philosophy is that we are
building a community of teachers, staff, parents, and students, who participate in the
mission of the school by creating an environment that goes beyond the walls of the
classroom. From working in this environment, I have grown to understand the need
for schools to have a sense of community. Ive seen that students respond positively
to teachers who are involved with them outside of the classroom. Teachers who
bring their skills and interests to the entire school community are more valuable
than a teacher who only excels in the classroom. Personally, I have become more
aware of what I can bring to the students besides my expertise in teaching. The best
relationships I have with students are the ones I see and interact with outside of the
classroom.
One of the other areas that allowed me to grow professionally is the fact that
we included all of our students with special needs into the general education
classrooms. When developing the program, my colleague and I wanted to examine
what full inclusion would do for the students both psychologically and academically.

Its profound how the incoming ninth graders are shell-shocked when they begin to
go to general education classes, but, they also feel included and a feeling of
belonging comes to them that they had never felt before. They are no longer that
kid who goes into the special classroom. They feel a sense of equality.
Working on my masters degree during the first years of opening up a school
couldnt have been better timing. As I was developing my film in EDUC 522, I was
able to utilize the student film projects, arts integrated projects, our Humanitas
units, and Counsel, a form of discussion that our school was adopting at the time. I
was able to use the resources and applications I learned about in EDUC 512 in my
classroom and with my colleagues. I also learned how to build a Web Quest; a great
tool for students to use when studying a unit. I immediately used the tools I learned
in EDUC 514, and help other teachers develop an awareness of video production and
how students can use different types of video for projects. The special education
courses I took allowed me to blend my teaching practices, coursework, reflection,
and administrative duties. What I learned from my coursework taught me things
about the job, and what I learned professionally helped me with assignments and
projects in the coursework.
My action research project is based off of a need we have at the school I work
at. We have had iPads for about a year. It has been great to have this technology,
but it has become a classroom management nightmare. There are issues that
teachers didnt anticipate. One of the main issues we have is that students walk into
the classroom, sit down, and immediately start playing video games while they wait
for the teacher to start the class. Once the teacher is ready to start the class, he/she

takes about 5 minutes trying to manage the iPads. Even if they do get most of the
students to put their iPads upside down on their desks, there is still that one or two
students that sneak in an extra 5 minutes of game time. My action plan is
researching whether or not putting the iPads in the iPad cart the minute the
students walk into class makes a difference on classroom management and time
spent trying to get the attention of the class at the beginning of instruction. Plus, the
I want to find out from the students if not having the iPad at their fingertips allows
them to be less distracted and more focused on the teacher and those around them.
The teacher in the research project is allowed to give the students the iPad if it is
part of the lesson, but, overall, the teacher has the say on when the students can use
the iPads in the classroom. Thus far, I have heard only positive feedback from both
the teacher and students.

Technical Growth
The amount of technology knowledge I have gained from this program is
tremendous. The first class I took was EDUC 514 and in that course I learned about
the application NearPod, which I brought to my campus. Teachers have fallen in
love with it. I was exposed to a variety of media assignments, such as developing a
commercial, making a trailer for a novel or unit plan, which I used for projects in my
own classroom. In EDUC 522, I learned about many different apps that are available
on the iPad. We have one-to-one iPads at our school and each week I would come
back from class and use one of new apps I had learned about. EDUC 522 also
opened my eyes to the various styles of learning and how to integrate each style of

learning into a unit plan. With each lesson I create, I make sure I include all learners
by creating activities in all learning modalities.
The knowledge I gained at APU and the amount of technology we were
integrating at work brought me into the present day. Before beginning coursework
at APU, I felt that I was rapidly falling behind and if I didnt start learning on my
own, I would be lost in the cyber maze of information. Fortunately, I was able to
learn both from school and work, and the amount of knowledge I gained was
beyond what I expected.
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/1341983?tabid=c315fd8b-074c-f653-
8b68-39985eceadf3

Life Long Learning Plan
When I was younger, I was asked this question quite often and found it quite
easy to answer. I had much confidence in my plan for life. Go to college, have a good
career, travel a little, get married, have kids, grow professionally and personally. It
was easy. I was going to do it all and things would fall into line as long as I put in the
hard work and kept my goals and dreams alive. Looking back at my life thus far, I
would say that my plan worked for the most part. I didnt plan on teaching, but have
found that it is the perfect career for me. I didnt plan on designing a school, but
when the opportunity came I jumped on it. Through these years, my plan for life has
fallen into a better path than what I anticipated. Im not complaining.
This is the first time in my career path where I find myself not searching for
something. I am content and comfortable where I am. This is not to say that I will

not grow professionally or personally. My growth has just changed direction. I have
accepted my role in life, my ability to teach children with special needs, and the
great connection I have with high school students. I no longer react to the
classroom; instead, the classroom reacts to me. I have learned through these years
that my presence to these students is life long.
Working at an innovative arts school, I have come to view education with an
entirely new perspective. Being in the middle of a dramatic change in education,
with technology controlling our curriculums, made me realize the evolving aspects
of education. Where I am at this point in my career is not to learn what education is,
but to take my knowledge and expertise and change education into what I want it to
be. Innovation is the key to developing an educational atmosphere, an educational
environment, not an educational system. A system relies on consistency, and the
minds of our children are not consistent.
There are many possible futures in my mind right now. What holds my mind
steady are my kids. I want to enjoy them and be in the moment with them, but at
the same time I dont want to become stagnant. I know I will develop and grow at
the high school Im working at. We are constantly trying to break the envelope at
the school and the amount of experience I gain from working there will be
extremely valuable. At the same time, Im not ready to settle at one location for the
next 25 years. Thoughts of getting my doctorate and teaching teachers crawl
through my mind. I consider entering a research program at a university and
becoming a professor. There are other times I consider developing my
administration skills and trying to advance in an administrative position in special

education. Although, when I picture myself in that actual position, I dont see myself
happy. So, Im pretty sure that will not be my route. Another area of my future
dreams is to write a couple of novels. It has always been my dream to write fiction.
I actually see this dream coming to life once Ive completed my masters. The
creative side of me is itching to get out, and Im ready to paint and write again.
Wherever my future leads me, I know I will do what makes me happy. Life has
calmed down a lot for me. Its no longer about where I will be; its about how I get
there. And the journey will be the best part of it.

SECTION 2
History of Coursework and Course Evaluation
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/1341983?tabid=5a462082-8204-39be-
7a2d-57f2ffc93cb3

Evaluation of the impact of the Digital Teaching and Learning Program
One new instructional tool that I use in the classroom is the use of video to
create projects. In the Digital Video class, I learned how to create a quality video
and how to use video for both teaching and learning. This class taught me that
there are different types of videos students can create. I will use commercials
and trailers to introduce lessons to students. Students can develop their own
commercials and trailers to summarize novels, lessons, and units. The Digital
Video class also taught me basics about video production, which I will use when
creating my own videos for the classroom, but will also use when teaching

students how to make their videos. Since the students at my school have iPads,
they have immediate access to a video camera. They also have an editing
application on the iPad, so they are able to edit their videos immediately. I have
found that the students develop communication skills, collaboration skills, and
their creativity when they produce videos in groups.

Program Evaluation
I have thoroughly enjoyed attending APU. The first day I stepped on
campus to discuss my courses with an enrollment counselor, I was impressed
with how friendly and happy everyone was in the offices. People went above
and beyond, guiding me through the process and helping me out when I needed
it.
One of the things that drew me to this program was that it was a hybrid
program. Some courses were online, while others were hybrid. I found that the
hybrid courses were a lot more useful to me. Being in visual contact with the
teachers and students made me feel more in touch with whom I was taking a
class with. When I took a course that was purely online, without even digital
contact, I felt more removed from those in the class. The online courses that had
some meetings online with video contact helped me understand the teacher, the
other students, and the purpose of the course. Plus, speaking with people in an
online forum through video chat takes a lot less time than reading through many
different comments in the forums.

For the most part, I felt that I knew what was going on before each class
started for the term. I received emails from teachers informing me about the
class. There was one time where there was a miscommunication and half the
class ended up going to the campus, while the other half received emails
explaining that there was a change in the structure of the class last minute, and it
would solely be online. This was a bit frustrating, but luckily it only happened
once.
Overall, the content of the classes, the amount of information I learned,
and the knowledge teachers had about the current technology was great. Each
teacher I had had extensive knowledge in their area of expertise and was very
willing to talk about things beyond the scope of the class. They responded in a
timely manner to questions and emails, and were very understanding during the
hardships I went through while in grad school. I am grateful that APU is faith
driven and provided me with a better understanding of how faith plays a role in
my life as a teacher, parent, friend and family member.

Growth Assessment 2

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Nicole Lopez EDUC 526 Growth Assessment Page 1

Azusa Campus Spring 2 May/2014

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