Looking Back
In education, there has been a shift towards developing curriculum and standards that will better prepare our students in the 21st century. After undergraduate graduation through Michigan State University, I gave myself a few years in my own classroom to become accustomed to teaching and ample time to reflect on what I truly wanted to pursue my Master’s Degree in.
After careful reflection and development of my personal and professional goals, I decided to continue my education at Michigan State University and pursue a master’s degree in Educational Technology. Upon applying to Michigan State University’s Masters of Educational Technology program (MAET), I established two clear goals for myself:
Learn to integrate and implement technology in my teaching practice:
Become an asset as a technology integrator in my district:
Technology allows the opportunity to individualize assignments, promote collaboration, and increase student motivation and engagement instead of using it as another way to display content.
The MAET program would help me become an asset in my school district allowing me to create and provide professional development opportunities about technology integration; which can lead me down the path into becoming a technology specialist, director, consultant or designer.
As an educator who has been a part of two different school districts, I have had experience with the latest technologies such has Chromebooks, Smart Boards, Promethean Boards, and Apple Products. Looking back, I realized I was never given professional development on how to utilize these types of technologies to promote learning for my students. Quite frankly, these tools ended up being another way to display information and content to my students. I knew I wanted to expand my learning and knowledge about technology and how to incorporate it in my students learning in and outside of the classroom.
​
As I am nearing the end of my journey in the MAET program, I have come to a realization that my original goals still hold true. The original goals themselves have remained the same but the MAET program has allowed me to gain knowledge and experience to further define various sub goals within them. For example, I have learned about different technology that I can incorporate into the classroom but have created a sub goal of figuring out purposeful technology that is effective for students. Similarly, my goal to become an asset in my district continues to be something that I strive for. I have pushed myself to be a leader in my building which has given me an opportunity to be a part of Oakland Schools initiative to build knowledge and practices that develop deep learning and transform pedagogies using real-life problem solving and technology is a big part of that. I will continue to push myself with this goal because I believe there is much more to be achieved to become a true asset in my district.
Technology will always be growing and flourishing in the future, but my goals will remain the same. I will keep my original goals in the forefront of my personal and professional goals as an educator. I will strive to achieve my goals and create sub goals within them to better the instruction for my students and create collaboration opportunities for the educators I come across.