The new face of college prep: CSUEB alumna leads the way for future online students

• February 17, 2012 5:00am

Colette Roche knew what she wanted to be from the beginning, “I was one of those people who always knew they wanted to be a high school English teacher.” When the time came, she went to University of California, Berkeley to earn her degree in English and then on to California State University, East Bay to get her teaching credential.

For Roche, learning has never been simply an obligation; it’s very much a desire. After completing her first Master’s degree in English, she decided to come back to Cal State East Bay and earn a MS in Education because they were one of the few schools to offer an option in Online Teaching and Learning, “Really I did it because I’m a huge nerd. Education technology interested me and I wanted to know more about it. I’m really glad I did it. It forced me to become a better teacher by looking at the different ways materials could be presented with the appropriate integration of technology.”

Ms. Roche started out as the Director of Online Education at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, where she experienced first-hand the benefits of online education, “Every student gets to participate, regardless of their natural classroom response time … and there’s more depth to discussion especially with the ability for students to link to outside resources.” Ms. Roche is currently the Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Bishop O’Dowd, where her duties include creating and overseeing the curricula for all subjects. She says that one of her goals in this new position is to “normalize online education so that it’s recognized as another appropriate mode for teaching and learning.”

To hear more from Colette on how her CSUEB degree has helped her, watch her video.

LP