Good morning all! I'm Mark McDonald and I'm a native sothern Californian. I was born in Covina but moved to and was raised in Temecula from age 5. I attended many schools in the Temecula Valley Unified School District from Kindergarten through 12th grade. In all, I attended six different schools. This was during the 90's when the town was growing rapidly and new schools were being built nearly every year. After high school I attended Mt. San Antonio Community College and earned an A.S. in commercial flight. Afterwards, (c. 2002) I transfered to Cal State San Marcos and earned a B.A. in psychology while working as an aircraft mechanic and commercial pilot as income for school. Now, I've returned to school for a multiple subjects credential here at CSUSM.

I'm an average level tech savvy person; not completely lost but still needing a bit of knowledge to navigate today's high tech classrooms. Consistent with the latter statement, I'm average for know-how for both Macs and PCs. Neither confuse me too terribly, but I enjoy the Mac more than the PC (more toys). I also like being able to drag everying aroung and in a way, physically put a file where I want. It's great for visual learners like myself. My biggest phobia about technology is arriving to class for a presentation that I cannot access because of some software issue that can't be solved by simply backing up the Powerpoint (or what ever it is) in five different sources. Luckily, it still hasn't bitten me so far. At the moment I'm using a six-year-old IBM laptop with Windows XP which is now leaving a bit to be desired.

What caught my attention most from the College of Education's mission statement was the mention of being committed to reflective teaching and life-long learning. It seems that these are important traits for teachers to have, especially in today's classrooms. As in most fields of work, if we're not moving forward, then we are likely moving backwards. This was a factor for me in applying to the school in addition to great reviews from word of mouth from staff and administration at many public schools in the area.