Israel Jones-Alvarez

I am Israel Jones-Alvarez and I am a Science and Engineering teacher at Ballington Academy for the Arts and Sciences. I was born in Santiago, Chile and lived there until I was 9 years old. Then my family and I moved to Tustin, California where I went to Spirit Christian Academy until I graduated as Valedictorian. During my time in High School I was involved in student government and mission trips to Tacna, Peru. In my Junior year I learned that you could create an interactive whiteboard using an infrared pen and a Wii Remote, so I made my own infrared pen from scratch to try this out.

After graduating High School I went to UCLA to study Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering and became involved with CEED, the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity. CEED allowed me the opportunity to meet new Engineering friends as well as acquire a research position creating lab-on-a-chip devices. I was involved in leadership with Cru as well as worked at the Smart Grid Energy Research Center developing smart devices for more efficient power usage.

When I don't have school or work I have several hobbies I like to spend my free time with. I enjoy both playing and watching soccer, practicing piano, drawing, writing calligraphy, and working on my own programming or microcontroller projects.

With my background in Science and Engineering, I would absolutely love to teach in that area. I can bring in all my experience to make Science and Engineering relevant and hands on. I am especially excited to bring in robotics and programming into the classroom since those were some of my favorite projects to complete. While I originally wanted to teach Physics at a High School, I am excited to be teaching Science and Engineering at Ballington Academy for my second year. I never imagined teaching elementary, but the content area was right up my alley. So far, I am enjoying my time in elementary, many of the students are so excited to be learning science in my class.

One of my biggest things I would like to do to teach is to make things as relevant and hands-on for my students. This is because I am a very hands-on learner and love getting to build things and I believe that students really like when they have some active projects. With my background it is easy to find hands-on and relevant activities for my students to do. I would also like to give my students as much control as I can. I have been reading several books recently that state that children do not have much sense of control, which makes it harder for them to take control of their own lives when they start becoming adults. So, my projects will be more open-ended so that the students can be as creative as possible.