Category: Student posts

April 12, 2033

Hi Ms. P! Or Nicole, Or Coe-Coe, or however I should address myself from 10 years ago!

Man, time flies! You graduated in 2023 with your bachelor’s, and graduated from PACE in 2025! It truly felt like an amazing, but obviously stressful journey. After graduating with your bachelors, PACE really put you through the ringer. Though everybody was supportive, I totally understand why you were so nervous. Crowd control is very different once you’re the main teacher in the classroom, but PACE really was the best choice for you. There were so many community aspects, like going on hikes and going out to eat with fellow teachers, that helped you make friends and other connections, to try new things, and to truly get to know yourself as a person and teacher.

I understand that you may even be struggling now, since at this time you’ll be wrapping up your year. It gets better. The only way to see the prettiest sunsets its to trek through the hardest hills sometimes, but I promise it gets better 🙂

It’s great to know that you’ll have plenty of students that love you. Here are some mementos from when you were in school that I’ve kept this whole time! Even if you don’t remember the students, they might remember you and your smiling face helping out in their classes.

This is part of what kept you going from the start, and this is what keeps you going 🙂 they are the SWEETEST and your kiddos to this day are still the sweetest. Anyways, I don’t wanna spoil your future too much, but since I don’t care about spoilers in anime/games/books/anything else, I’ll let you in on some super secret future stuff.

First thing, you’re still filing your taxes as single. You aren’t necessarily dating, or single, or living with your partner, but you’re still filing taxes as single. That’s your only hint, so stop worrying about your love life! One of my favorite qualities about you have been that you love others so easily, but one lesson you’ll learn is that when you love yourself first, you’ll be much happier.

You’re teaching where you don’t feel cold. Honestly, it’s hard to not want to live in Oregon, but there was nothing tying you to Oregon anymore and there’s great opportunities. It’s really amazing to leave the house and not be so cold, and to see sunshine pretty frequently. That’s definitely a mood-booster throughout the hard weeks and hard months. A dip in the pool is also very nice, I can’t forget about that. There’s been so many new connections made through work as well. Just you wait. I know it’s hard to make friends, and you’re slightly insecure about making friends because you’ve moved schools a lot as a kid. Don’t worry about it. You’ve got a good heart, and people see that.

You’ve always had a great start. No matter how imposter-syndrome-y you feel, your parents worked hard for you to be where you are, and you’ve also made efforts to feel like you belong. You deserve every bit of it. Don’t let your insecurities get the better of you.

By now, you’ve also done a few good bucket list things! Let’s just say it’s a good thing you waited and you’ve sat on those ideas for longer than you initially wanted to, those HURT.

I’ll leave you with some other feelings of nostalgia. Enjoy, don’t cry too hard because of all the feelings, you’ve done that too much already in your lifetime.

Honestly, I’m not sure what other advice I’d give ya. You’re doing great, keep working hard through everything and everything will fall into place 🙂

-Nicole Pagtakhan

This book is meant to part of the second lesson in a kindergarten unit on the plant life cycle. Students will learn about what a plant needs to stay alive/grow, the different parts of the plant, and the plant life cycle. They will have an introductory lesson before this and will start growing their own plant in the next lesson. While the video at the end is mildly annoying, students will listen to it every morning during the unit to help them learn on a schedule. Additionally, adding that extra video and auditory aspect will increase recall and overall retention.

Featured image: Photo by Nahil Naseer on Unsplash.

April 16, 2033

Dear past me,

It seems like just yesterday I was finishing the spring semester of my third year in college after spending the semester before abroad in Europe for the first time. So much of my life has changed since college and I’m so excited for you to see everything life has waiting for you. Here’s a little sneak peek at things you can look forward to.

1. Super Speed Traveling: You always had dreams of traveling the world, and with our new technology traveling times in planes have been cut in half thanks to super speed technology. An 11-hour flight to Germany is now only a 5-hour flight! The same goes for flights to other states. You could easily get to NY in just under 3 hours or take a day trip to LA in a 30-minute flight. There are still more adventures you have left before you retire your passport, but in the last 10 years you for sure have had your fair share of travels.

2. Female Leaders: I remember back in 2023 women’s voices were finally starting to be heard and we started to elect women into political positions of power, but now in 2033 we’ve finally had our first woman president! She has done such great work as the face and leader of this country! Our madame President has broken the status quo and has done so much to protect women’s rights across the United States.

3. Insane Block Busters: I remember how much you loved going to the movies with your friends and let me just tell you some of the Marvel and Disney movies that have been released in the last decade have been amazing! All theaters are now equipped with 4D theaters that you don’t have to pay extra for and have such fun seating options from your typical recliners to a nice comfy bean bag you can choose from. Also, they no longer made it against the rules to bring outside food, so now you can bring whatever yummy treats you want to the movies.

Wow so much has happened in the last decade! Hopefully, you enjoyed this little blast from the future and realize all the fun things you have to look forward to. Remember just keep pushing you are almost done with college and have your whole life still ahead of you.

Images:

Image by Jan from Pixabay

Image by Stephan from Pixabay

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

April 12, 2023

Dear former me,

It seems like only yesterday, I was at UP. It was the spring term, 2023.

So much has happened since then, and it has only been 10 years since that date. After finishing the three plus one program at UP, I graduated with a bachelors in Secondary Education and Spanish, a minor in Philosophy, and got a masters in Education with an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) endorsement. I then ended up working in the David Douglas School District for four years focusing on teaching spanish to complete the TEACH grant program that I am a part of. After finishing the four years, me and my wife decided to leave the United States and have moved to Oslo, Norway, where we have been located the past 4 years. I decided to get a master’s degree in Spanish language and literature, and at this stage, i have been interested in going to get a doctorate in Education. I have not decided on what field to focus on yet, but I do know I have enjoyed teaching high school all of these years. I definitely gravitate more towards teaching older students, and I have plans to eventually be able to teach in a University. I also ended up learning two more languages, Norwegian and Japanese (I know, a fun combination), and it has been a blast to be able to talk with multiple people from various other cultures.

Well, won’t spoil anymore. See you.

Credits

Image by ha11ok from Pixabay

Dear Past Me,
It feels like just yesterday that I was finishing the Spring Semester of my second year at UP. So much has happened in the ten years since then. Because I don’t want to spoil anything about your future life, here are five pop culture highlights that have happened in the past decade. Enjoy!

1. More and more reboots and remakes

That’s right! The trend of reimagining classics has continued. Thankfully, we’ve still gotten some original ideas from larger production companies like DreamWorks and Warner Brothers. However, in the grand scheme, there is still a strong surge of Disney live action remakes as well as reboots of book to movie adaptations. Starting with Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which was set to come out in 2024, the Riordanverse has expanded in TV show adaptations. So far, The Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase have joined the Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus on the tube (yes, old slang has come back). We’ve also seen TV adaptations of some of your favorite book series from grade school such as Cryptid Hunters, Kingdom Keepers, and, of course, The Missing Series. Hollywood finally figured out that books, specifically book series, should become TV shows, not movies.

2. Continued Franchises

Remember watching a great movie and thinking, wow, that was such a great story just the way it was, and then next thing you know some big production company treats it like the goose that laid the golden eggs? Welp, creators just don’t know when to stop. Remember when Frozen 2 came out six years after the first one? Well, now we’ve had Frozen 3 and Frozen 4 as well as an Olaf and Sven spinoff. There have also been two more Pirates of the Carribean movies as well as many TV show “epilogues” to other long-lasting franchises such as Shrek, James Bond, and Jurassic Park/World.

3. Slang change!

So long slay, period, and queen! Let’s face it, you know the slang was way better back in middle school and high school. Roasted, legit, and tea hit hard. I don’t want to spoil what the kids are saying now, but I will say that Gretchen Weiners was 30 years ahead of her time.

4. And the new historical American Girl is…

You might remember that way back in 2023, the American Girl company added the newest historical American Girl dolls: Isabel and Nicki from 1999. Well, this year they are releasing the next doll in the Historical collection: Madison from the 2000s. After adding 3 more dolls from the late 80s and early 90s between 2026 and 2029, the company is releasing their first doll from the 21st century!

5. Flying cars in 2015? More like 2030

That’s right! Back to the Future 2 was only off by fifteen years. While we aren’t quite at the level of The Jetsons just yet, there have been fast advances in the realm of transportation. With the increase of electric cars that were released in the late 2020’s, the first actual flying car was patented three years ago. Flying cars are set to hit local dealerships within the next five years.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this sneak peek into the future! See you in ten years! -Your Future Self

Feature Image by Blanca Díaz from Pixabay

This Google Sites is for students to begin looking at and understanding interdisciplinary learning and studies. Most studies are divided into their own departments and schools, and the Google Sites is meant as a way to look at how Spanish and Climate change may be interwined. This lesson is meant as an introduction that students will go over in Spanish and answer a small assessment at the end of looking at this information. This will then lead them into a Spanish project of interwining Spanish into other disciplines that students will then present about to the whole class.

Click on Image below to be sent to Google Site.

Image Credit:

Image by Top 10 website

By: Ella Parker and Valerie Garcia

Hello 4th graders! Today, we’re going to use technology to explore the fascinating lives of some of the most important women in history. By using technology, we can learn about the incredible achievements of women from all around the world, and how their actions and contributions have shaped the world we live in today. We will be using some amazing resources like websites, and making our own books to learn about these incredible women, and discover how they made a difference in their time. So get ready to put on your explorer hats, and let’s use technology to dive into the stories of some amazing women who changed the course of history!

The book being made by the students will be the final part of our unit on woman history month. Over the course of this unit the students have been learning about important women in history and the teacher will allow the students to branch out and pick a woman in history that speaks to them and inspires them. The book they make will be presented in front of the whole class so as to learn from their peers.

By the end of this instructional lesson, students will be able to effectively use technology to research and gather information about important women in history, including their achievements, contributions, and impact on society. Students will be able to navigate websites, use search engines to find relevant information and evaluate the credibility and reliability of sources. They will also be able to organize their research and present their findings in an organized and engaging way using technology tools such as the book they are making.

The technology being used in this lesson is google docs to draft their book, book creator to make their book, google sites to keep an inventory of all the books made, and lastly the search engines they are using to find their research.

Technology is supporting the instructional goal because they are using these tools to gather credible information on a woman that inspires them and showcasing this in a way that is accessible to everyone.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sg5Nd1tuMk1wFvuJDik-VXSEcSJqVIc2GepjIk3MHao/edit

(planning worksheet)

https://sites.google.com/d/1-W_5Pe1nisuWu0kV4vpyq9YRF0cp-dUl/p/1B1ba7g2x-JUFbsl-wo94TvMAuJw6CRWP/edit

(site to post the student’s books on)

Example Book Below:

By Garrett Esponda

Self-Graded Quiz

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJvqFdOvct0cLJ4eOJJKFkrIBtFCy4ERriJSZbCaIlonluFg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Branching Quiz

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScf5Ov-iS92Xkx9YmPnx7m-BS57VG7eBZ4gxXZa4y6DXvEr2Q/viewform?embedded=true

These google forms are so awesome! They can be used in so many ways. There is so many ways to differentiate material for students and allow them to work at their own pace. This also allows students to use their own technology to be able to develop their own skills. Furthermore, this could be used really well in sub plans. The directive and guidance able to be given in the forms is a very useful aspect to be able to connect with students even when the teacher cannot be there. I think that this is where I will use the tool most and it would be highly beneficial to develop students and monitor their learning while not able to be in the classroom.

By Garrett Esponda & Maddy Lopez

Click the image to get taken to our website!

This lesson would be used as an introductory lesson into trigonometry. The goal for this lesson is for students to be able to develop a sense of understanding of trigonometry while using different online tools to assist them.