Lara Ervin Introduction

Hello,

My name is Lara Ervin and I am currently the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Specialist for the Milpitas Unified School District. I am in the first year of the Learning and Instruction doctoral program.

Professional Life:

For the past thirteen years I have been a teacher in the California public school system. I have taught a number of courses, primarily in the Social Science/English realm, but also have experience with Theater, Choir and Science. I have dabbled in the film industry and enjoy all aspects of video production, utilizing those skills in teaching film as a year-long course at a high school in Southern California. Upon relocation to Northern California several years ago, I have also begun to explore the role technology plays in education through work with Intel and Oracle. I had the opportunity to spend two summers with each company through the Industry Initiatives in Science and Math Education and brought not only technology but also 21st Century Learning skills back to my classroom and district. The experiences also gave me the opportunity to present and organize panels at the National Education Computing Conference in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Two years ago, I stepped out of the classroom and into the position of a Teacher Specialist for the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment program in my district. I had been working with professional development for teachers in various stages of their careers and the position has been a good fit. In this role I have been able to design and implement pure online, hybrid and face-to-face (f2f) trainings for new and experienced teachers in many areas of need. The program has been completely restructured to incorporate higher levels of personal and virtual support, with the intent of supporting teachers as they seek out the best ways to increase student learning in the classroom. Interwoven with the formal and informal support structure is a focus on personal growth and inquiry for teachers. I have greatly enjoyed this job and it has given me the opportunity to grow personally in the areas of English Language Instruction and addressing Special Populations.

My latest additions to the professional realm of my life have been the opportunities to explore curriculum writing for a fabulous private school in Belmont as well as venturing forth into teaching at the University level. Recently, I have been writing resiliency curriculum and learning a lot about helping students as well as about working as a curriculum writer. The opportunity to write curriculum coincided with an offer to teach in the education department at the University of Phoenix. In exploring the program, I was surprised and impressed to see their approach to teaching emphasizes many of the research-based practices I learned about in the Foundations course here at USF. Thus far, I have taught Sociology for them as the courses were near public transit hubs and I no longer drive due to being legally blind. At a conference I attended (and presented in) last week, I was referred to a department chair at San Jose State University, with the intent of teaching their RICA (middle school emphasis) course in the Spring/Summer.

Why a Doctorate?

I am a life long learner in every sense of the phrase. In my private as well as professional life I passionately pursue knowledge and seek out the answers to the multitudinous questions that occur to me daily. I chose to pursue a doctorate at this time because I find myself doing oodles of research (for fun) and want the experience of being able to dialogue with others with similar interests and ideas. Being back in the classroom as a learner excites me, especially with the incredibly high caliber of individuals I have met thus far at USF. I am hoping that my work in the doctoral program will also help me find a specific focus for my research interests as the questions I have seem nebulously connected at best (see next section).

In addition to the intellectual challenge and community opportunities, I have chosen to pursue the doctoral program at this time for another, more personal reason as well. Two years ago I was declared legally blind. Teaching has been my life and my passion and I don't want to leave the field just because I can't see what the kids in the back of the room might be doing (did I mention I taught High School?). I love working with students and realize that my life would be extremely empty without the interaction and thrill of watching them develop as learners. To this end, I hope that a doctorate will allow me the opportunity to transition from teaching high school to teaching university.

Potential Project Topics:

I entered the program with an intent to gain the most I possibly could from the experience. I have always been fascinated with how people learn, both formally and informally. In researching my literature review for last semester's class I found many topics (which I put aside then) I would like to explore in more detail. A common thread throughout the topics is the idea of the role motivation (internal or external) plays in cognitive development as well as the theme of personalized, meaningful development. Please find a list of topics in which I have interest (and some research already) below:

Transformational Learning (Mezirow)
Apprenticeship Learning
Project/Problem Based Learning
Addressing Cultural Learning Styles
Using Technology to Enhance Learning/Differentiation
Biological Foundations of Cognitive Development/Brain Based Teaching
Cross-Cultural Cognition
Social Cognition

Thank you for taking the time to read this incredibly long blog. I look forward to working with all of you.

Lara