Saturday, January 30, 2010

Hi, I'm Kelly


Hi, my name is Kelly Wehrley. I’m 24, and I’ve lived in the city of Encinitas (the actual town is Cardiff-by-the-Sea) all my life. Throughout my K-12 years, I attended Cardiff Elementary, then Ada Harris Elementary, then Oak Crest middle school, and eventually ended up at San Dieguito Academy high school.

In the past, I’ve been more of a PC person.  I grew up with PCs and feel like I have more control when using a PC because I am familiar with how they operate.  When I use a Mac, I feel like all the control has been taken out of my hands, as if everything has been simplified to cater to new users.  Example:  My mother gets confused and frustrated by PCs, but she loves her MacBook because she prefers having each complicated task on the computer taken care of for her with only a click or two of the touchpad.  I, on the other hand, often find attempts to make computers more “user friendly” annoying (like when programs switch from dropdown lists to ambiguous icons).  However, my experience with Macs in the 422 class has been pretty good so far.  Perhaps I will look into Macs if I start doing more work with Photoshop.  I depend on technology for internet access (for school, work, and leisure) and I like all the technology that makes my life fun and convenient (TV, dvd player, cars and electricity…etc), but I certainly don’t exploit it to its full potential (I’d like a smart phone, but I don’t need or have the money for one).  And I suppose I just don’t like change much because I am still running the same copy of Microsoft Word 2000 that I ran on my first desktop—it’s made the journey with me every time I moved on to a new computer.

According to what I’ve read in the College of Education Mission Statement, I believe the College of Education has some very noble goals.  I feel that in this day and age, “diversity, educational equity, and social justice” should be a given in education for anyone anywhere, and I too will strive to encourage and foster these ideals when I am a teacher.  As a student, I am encouraged by the focus of the college on student-centered education, collaboration, and community.  However, what really encouraged me to apply to the College of Education at Cal State San Marcos were the recommendations made by so many of the bright, talented, capable educators that I have had the pleasure of working with and respect so highly.  Many of them are graduates of the CSUSM College of Education and consider it to have one of the best teacher training programs around.