I am currently a third grade teacher. This is
my first year teaching third grade, and third year teaching in general. I work
at a district that is very advanced in technology. In my classroom I have a 1:1
ratio of students to tablets. I also have four laptops and a Mimio, an
interactive whiteboard. I have been very fortunate to take my learning’s and
ideas from my courses and apply them to the classroom! I am currently enrolled
in the Ed Tech/Leadership program. My current librarian, who is our technology
specialist, led me to this program. It has turned out to be one of the best
decisions of my professional career. I have truly enjoyed every course! When I
graduate, I am expecting to change jobs that deal with professional development.
I want to help teachers learn how to incorporate technology in their classroom
and be successful!
For the next couple of years, I see myself in
the first level of service. I need to get more experience in the actual
classroom. I feel to move into the second level of service you have to feel
confident in what you are training others to do. I am hoping within the next
five years I will move into the second level of service because I would love to
be in a position that trains others how to successfully implement technology in
the classroom. I do want to stay in education, but I would be open to moving up
into the third level with designing instruction comes in. Right now, location
is an important feature of work, but I love to travel to different schools and
see their ideas. High promotion opportunity is important to me because it helps
keep me driven and focus on my task!
For my degree I would benefit from more
leadership courses and experience. With me moving to a testing grade, I am
helping my creditability with other teachers. However, I think I need to gain
some general experience in the public school system. I have been very fortunate
to work with my school’s technology specialist and see firsthand the different
assignments and tasks that are completed on a daily basis.
TCTA is a great organization for any job in public schools. It produces
a great publication called The Classroom
Teacher that offers great resources and articles. I am also a big fan of
ISTE. They give great resources for the technology side of teaching and
education. It is a great idea to join these organizations before graduating.
With all the different resources and articles, it would be great to use for
case studies and research papers. Not only are organizations a great place to
stay knowledgeable, but Twitter is another great social media resource to have
discussions and get ideas.
Your long term goals are great. You are very lucky to have the resources you have available. I would love to see how you use the tablets, etc in your classroom on a regular basis. I think teachers would really appreciate someone helping them to use technology in their lessons. Sounds like a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog as my career path aspirations are very similar to your own. I would love to train teachers on the use of technology in their classroom. My school is technologically advanced, but we are far from 1:1 as of now. I am hoping that after i obtain my Masters, I can move into a position to work closely with teachers of our district at the middle school level on technology.
ReplyDeleteYou are very fortunate that you have the opportunity to work with your technology specialist. In our district, each instructional technologist is responsible for several schools, and rarely gets the chance to spend more than a day or two at each campus a month. Great post.