Hiliana Leon

Hi! My name is Hiliana Leon, I am working on my master's degree in Instructional Technology at Northern Illinois University. I received my bachelor's degree from the same university in 1994 and began a teaching career on the same year. In 2007 I completed a Masters of Arts in School Leadership. My experience in education has been vast and rewarding. I have taught various grade levels in both monolingual and bilingual classrooms in two different communities. My teaching philosophy has always been to ensure that my students have the knowledge, skills and values to be successful in the coming years. I have always looked upon current research and past experiences to design a curriculum that best fits the needs of my students. I also had to opportunity to coordinate a school’s bilingual program for one year and through this experience I learned to strengthen my managerial skills and become more efficient and better organized. My strong interest and knowledge in technology has given me the opportunity to manage and run a successful computer program at my school. Currently, I am the Learning Technology teacher at Sandoval School in Chicago and I work closely with our teachers and support personnel to meet the demands of our ever growing technological world. Through a collaborative effort with the technology coordinator, we have planned and implemented various staff in-services that assist our teachers with technology integration. We have increased classroom productivity through the use of computerized grade books, e-mail and digital forms to name a few. In the classroom, I have integrated various web 2.0 tools to enhance the curriculum such as blogs and have participated in various collaborative global network projects.