My Goals throughout the Years
After completing my undergraduate degree and finishing my internship through the College of Education at Michigan State University (MSU), I accepted an 11th grade English Language Arts (ELA) position at a charter school in Houston, Texas. Once I completed my third year of teaching, I decided to go back to MSU for my master’s. I narrowed it down to two options: Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum or Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET). I had to ask myself, “Where do you see yourself in the future?” Two thoughts came to mind. I foresaw myself remaining in a Title 1 school district, and I knew I wanted to remain in the classroom. This made my decision to apply to the MAET program easy because I saw a major deficit with technology at my previous school. We had limited everything- from computer paper to computers and everything in between.
My original goal was to help to design a class and curriculum that is geared towards learning a variety of digital skills in order to help students become confident, educated members of society who are capable of being technologically advanced. I wanted students become more prepared for life outside of high school by incorporating more electronic forms of technology in my classroom. I also wanted to create a classroom with differentiated learning for students who work at different paces. I believed that students would become more invested in the curriculum if there were other modes of learning.
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As I furthered my education in the MAET program, I realized that technology is more than just digital. There are many resources that exist in a classroom that can be repurposed in an educational environment. I still have a goal to integrate technology into my classroom, but I am focusing on all technology now. I have realized that the use of traditional tools are also beneficial in a classroom. For example, I am incorporating more arts and crafts with traditional tools of markers, paper, etc. Now that I have moved back to Michigan and have changed schools, I have little more resources available. I currently teach at an art school, so I have been focusing on integrating different forms of art design into my ELA classroom. However, I still have a goal to help students become more confident in their digital learning.
Digital technology has many benefits, but I have also recently experienced many limitations. I went from a school that permitted no cell use to a school that permits cell phone use and it has been extremely challenging for me to acclimate because students are very much so distracted by their cell phones. However, I plan on finding uses of cell phone use in my classroom to help students have a purpose when they are on them. I also want to continue to make sure students are ready for life outside of high school and would like to expand their knowledge on technology as I continue to grow and learn more.