Dana Matousek's Educational Biography

I am an Arizona native, wife, mother of three, loving daughter, sister, aunt, godmother, student and teacher. Before most of these identities, I was a devoted kindergartner determined to become a teacher when I grew up. So, here I am.

I am a 1995 ASU West graduate with a degree in Elementary Education, including a Math specialization and Middle School Endorsement. I am currently enrolled in the Masters program for Elementary Educational Media and Computers.

I am a sixth grade teacher at Desert Palms Elementary School in the Peoria Unified School District. I started my teaching career as a fifth grade teacher, was bumped because of the lack of students to fill all classes, took an offered third grade position, then moved again up to my current sixth grade position in which I feel happy and secure.

My goal for the upcoming school year is to integrate more technology into lessons. I started the integration last year by including the use of the spreadsheet, graphing, Internet and word processing in a unit on weather. I found this to be extremely successful and hope to expand the technology integration throughout the remainder of my curriculum. I will teach all subjects, thus, I intend to develop units with cross-curricular integration. My long term goal is to teach seventh and eighth grade computers.

Extra-curricularly, I am a Student Council Advisor. This allows me to work with fifth through eighth grade Student Council members and facilitate strengthening their leadership skills. We engage in a variety of activities throughout the school year to benefit the school and community.