While life continues to happen it is often difficult to find time to navigate where life might take you next.  Time has already flown by as I enter my 3rd year of teaching and I find it crazy to already start thinking where my career might take me later on.  I never thought that I would have pursued a master’s degree so quickly, but here I am finishing my degree.  As I think about my future career, I would like to become a leader in education, become better at integrating technology into my classroom, and take a technology role within my district.  These goals became realistic within the last few years.  I love technology and could see how much my students love it as well.   This made me pursue my Master of Arts in Educational Technology.  As I learned about educational technology I realized how much I enjoyed sharing what I learned with my colleagues and finding new ways to integrate technology into my classroom.  In the past two years I have taken on a lot of leadership roles within my school and have enjoyed those positions.  My principal has also encouraged me to pursue a leadership role in education. I have had many influences and experiences that have made me take a step back and set goals for my future.

 

Over the past two years I have taken on leadership roles within my school.  Part of those leadership roles included applying for grants that would aid my classroom and school.  My school became a Leader in Me school this past year and I am on the lighthouse committee, which is a group that shines light on all things related to leadership and I also lead a small group in organizing school events.  I have really enjoyed taking on these positions and would like to take steps to become a leader in education.  Being a leader in education can mean all sorts of things, but I would like to become a principal or coach for new teachers.  To pursue this I would like to obtain my administration certificate from Eastern Michigan University.  I am interested in this particular program because it only requires 18 credit hours instead of 30 credit hours like a master's degree.  As I mentioned above life is really busy and it would be difficult to go back for another degree with family and work commitments. This certificate would open doors to becoming a principal or another leadership role in education.

 

Another leadership role in education could involve a technology position within my district.  Like I mentioned, I loved sharing things I learned from my master’s program with colleagues.  My district is very new to technology and could use leaders that will help teachers integrate the technology into the classrooms.  This was one of my original goals I had prior to obtaining my master's degree, but to further my knowledge I would read articles from Edutopia, take a course with Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learners, and network with people through blogs or twitter.

 

A leadership role in technology blends really well with integrating technology in my classroom.  All the steps I listed above to help me achieve my goal, as a tech leader would also suffice for helping me integrate technology into my classroom.  I didn’t pick a certain subject that I want to integrate technology in because I teach all subjects in my 2nd grade classroom.  Since I am not tied to a specific subject area, I believe I have more options as to how to integrate technology.  One thing I learned in my master's program was that technology was not created specifically for the classroom, however teachers can repurpose the technology to enhance the learning of their students.  Now, I know it is often difficult to think of a way to repurpose a tool, so that is why we network.  Networking is a great way to beg, borrow, and steal ideas.  I often find great ideas on teacher’s blogs.  Another great place to find information is at the Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) conference.  This conference takes place every year and features keynote speakers, demonstrations, and a student gallery all surrounding the topic of technology.  I have also been invited to my district's technology committee meetings.  These meetings involve sharing ideas and making decisions about the technology within our district.

 

As I think about how fast my first two years of teaching went, I can only imagine how quickly I will accomplish these goals.  What is interesting is that as I took the time to sit and really reflect on what I want my future goals to be I realized that I have already taken so many steps to acquire these goals.  Teaching is a career where learning is a part of your everyday job and as I continue my career I will continue to soak up as much knowledge as possible to achieve my goals.