Onward!
Future as A Learner Essay
As the wise Dr. Seuss once said, “you have brains in your head and feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose!” In choosing a direction after graduation, I think of my future, a future that lays ahead, a future of lifelong learning. I look forward to using my new gained knowledge from the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program to stay current with advancing technologies, expand my personal learning network, and continue to challenge myself to take on greater leadership roles within my school.
The MAET has prepared me to take on new career endeavors, such as becoming a new middle school science teacher, creating a technology board at my school, and establishing a new 1:1 tablet program that will pilot in the 2015-2016 school year. In continuing my professional growth and taking the appropriate avenues to further my credentials and stay current with advancing technologies, I will push myself to keep up on the rapidly changing world of technology by attending conferences, webinars, motivate myself by watching TED talks, and by reading scholarly works. As I challenge myself to keep up with the new, I will hold down my roots and ground myself with theories that I have learned about like the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Theory known as the TPACK theory (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) and continue to repurpose and create with current and old technologies. I will also challenge myself to bridge the gap of technology and science and bring theories like blended learning, flipped classrooms and project based learning (PBL) alive in my classrooms and well as my colleagues. I want to provide a strong core curriculum geared towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics that will provide my students with real world problem solving and learning. Finally, I hope to direct a maker movement camp or club this summer to continue to pique my students curious minds and most importantly have fun!
Expanding upon my personal learning network (PNL) will allow me to digitally connect with a diverse group of learners and enthusiasts from all over the world. This too, will help me stay current with advancing technologies. My personal learning network helps me keep current with upcoming conferences, webinars, and trending scholarly works. Not only does my PNL allow me to stay current with the times, but it also allows me an avenue to collaborate and explore. As I build upon my PLN, I will meet new educators, scientists and gain new networking opportunities. This will not only benefit me, but my students, too.
Lastly, as a leader, I strive to take on greater leadership roles within my school. This past year, I stepped out of the technology lab, however, I still want to be recognized as a technology leader and expert in my field. I want to share my passion of technology with my fellow colleagues and remove the skepticism that circulates around 21st century learning and programs like one to one learning. As our new technology board continues to plan in a mission like way, I am excited to take on the role as the new middle school pilot teacher for our new and upcoming 1:1 program that we are establishing for the future of our school. This excites me that we are beginning a new chapter, a chapter that will keep my feet moving in the right direction of innovative ways of teaching and 21st century learning.
As I find myself graduating and nearing the end of yet another great educational academic endeavor from Michigan State University, I find myself renewed and excited for the future. Michigan State has helped shaped me into the teacher I am today and as I say goodbye once again, my feet will continue to move forward and my brain will continued to be challenged. The MAET has prepared me to take on new career endeavors, such as becoming a new middle school science teacher, creating a technology board at my school, and establishing a new 1:1 tablet program that will pilot in the 2015-2016 school year. As always, I hope that my students will be the ultimate benefactors of my future plans and in turn they will have brains in their heads, feet in their shoes and be able to steer themselves in the direction of success.
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