My name is James Veltri and I was born in Oceanside and have lived my entire life in San Marcos. It sure has grown up! I went to school, K through 12, in San Marcos. I guess a part of my life which gives me the most pleasure is my family. Whether it is helping my dad pick and deliver oranges from our farm, or going to garage sales and flea markets with my mom, my life revolves around my family. I enjoy seeing my nieces when I can. I get the biggest kick out of helping my youngest niece out with her math homework. She is in second grade, so I can still help her out with her math. ☺ I have never really considered doing anything else with my life than teaching. It gives me a very deep contentment that I will be helping to make our future.
As for my knowledge of technology, I actually used to be a Mac person(Mac Performa) That was a long time ago, technologically speaking. For now, I am content with working with the PC. However, I think it will be fun to learn how to run a Mac again! My dependence on technology is a somewhat recent event. I can remember a time not too long ago when we had neither computer nor cell phones. We survived without them. But, as our lives become more and more hurried, these electronic devices seem to make it all sync and flow so that we can do many things at once. I do feel that I am pretty well dependant on technology, especially since attending college! Whether it is checking my web mail or networking on my cell phone with my fellow classmates, technology has become permanently integrated into my life.
innovative research
These two words from the mission statement speak to me as a future educator. For our students to be considerate and productive members of society, we must respond to their individual strengths and weaknesses. In my view the essential way for us to do this is to apply our understanding of educational theory. To accomplish this, we must do research. This research may be a quick chat with a few students on the way to their seats, or actually looking up statistics and applying them to the classroom. But we must not totally rely on “hard book” facts to apply educational theory. That talk with those few students on their way to their seats may give an educator more insight on how to apply educational theory and thus make them more “considerate and productive members of society” than any book can give. To be totally honest, the CSUSM/COE Mission Statement did not factor in my applying to CSUSM.
