About me

Hello everyone, my name is Sean Sullins.  I was born at a young age, some may say a child.  I spent my k-6 years at San Pasqual Union down in San Pasqual Valley.  We had maybe two to three hundred students school-wide so I became very comfortable in a small group setting filled with students from a diverse backgrounds.  Recently I came across picture of our kindergarten class posted online and mostly everyone from the classes were posting comments and trying to remember everyone's names and such.  It showed the unity a small classroom was able to build between us.  After San Pasqual I switched to L.R. Green for the remainder of my middle school years.  The transition was a little challenging because the students had the same close knit feeling with each other but since I was not a part of their group since early childhood, bonds were already formed.  The "new kid" label was very much stamped on my forehead which made the remaining two years more challenging.  I later went to a different high school then most of the people I knew, Orange Glen High School.  Here I learned the challenges of expressing myself on a stage through the theater department.  My high school days were filled with late nights preparing for shows and study groups for Statistics and and Calculus.  This skill of being able to structure my time with multiple activities helped me succeed as a math major at University of California San Diego.  During my studies at UCSD, I continued my theatrical education and began my musical training in guitar as well as gospel choir, all while furthering community building activities with established UCSD organizations.  The environment through college was much more independent than I was used to but this also helped me to find ways of developing into an independent learner.

Throughout my studies I was given the opportunity to develop my technology skills through general coursework as well as in my job.  At this point I feel capable of creating websites with links to learning tools as well as class syllabi.  When given a new piece of technology I feel confident in my capacity to learn by doing and if something doesn't work out, then I can usually find out how through various resources.  With the resources available to students, we can definitely develop new and exciting methods of engaging students and empower them to put their skills to good use.  From what I have seen with students I've worked with, when given a computer many will discover amazing ways of creating projects and expressing their thoughts, however there are many distractions available as well.  If a student lacks motivation or has trouble focusing then a computer with access to internet games, unrelated articles, and intriguing videos can become a powerful barrier between them and their own progress. 

One of the most powerful things I look for in working with educators is a collaborative environment with educators who are in a humble posture of learning.  It seems that there is always so much to learn about being a successful educator which is why it is so important to work with other educators and share successes and trials that each have gone through in order to pass on learning experiences we each have.  And for the CSUSM program to nurture its educators to regularly be reflecting on their experiences and assist them in their efforts to improve regularly is a noble goal.  The more I hear about the credential program at CSUSM the more I am excited to be a part of a group so focused on truly improving our educational systems.