Hello there, you! Let me introduce myself...

Hello everyone! 

Welcome to my first teacher blog post. My name is Tania Ovalle-Perez, but I go by Ms. Perez with my students. I am a fourth year English teacher for 9th and 11th graders and I am absolutely enjoying this ride. 

I graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a BA in English and for a hot minute, I had no idea what I wanted to do with it. I hopped around from one job to the next before deciding that enough was enough and that it was time to go back to school. After researching different careers and post-baccalaureate programs, I decided to enroll at Cal State Long Beach for my Single Subject Credential in English, and it has to be one of the best life decisions I have made to date.

I learned a lot about teaching and education from my professors at CSULB, but nothing could have prepared me for what would come pass during my time student teaching. Yup, you guessed it! The pandemic. My first year teaching was completely online until April of that school year and I not only had to very quickly figure out how and what to teach, but also how to entirely deliver that instruction over the internet. It was a learning curve like no other--for me and everyone else at that. This experience opened my eyes to the power of technology, its implications in education, and its application in (and out of) the classroom. In this course, I hope to expand and refine my skills as a teacher and learn more ways to use technology to engage my students in fun, creative, and most importantly accessible ways.

Hey that's me!