When I first entered Michigan State University for my masters degree in Educational Technology I had set a few goals for myself because I was asked to by my first professor. I set personal goals and professional goals for myself.

Personally, one of my goals entering this program was to finish my masters degree so I could get a pay raise and move lanes on our contract through my school district. The second personal goal I had set was to gain more knowledge about how to incorporate technology into my classroom so I could be a better teacher and keep the interest of my students.

Professionally, I had thought about how technology is becoming a major part of everyone's everyday lives, so why not get ahead of the education field and start incorporating it now. I wanted to learn about technology within the classroom so I could share my knowledge with my coworkers. Also, I wanted to find a way to differentiate my instruction using technology that was beneficial to the students. Every class I took, reading I read, and assignments I completed I thought about the benefits of it for my students and how I could use it with my students, whether that be stations, workshops, or the whole group.

As I am in my final semester of my Educational Technology program, I have realized that my personal and professional goals have not changed and I don’t want to change them. The only thing I would change is that I focus more on my professional goals than my personal goal. I always want to do what is best for my students and improve as a teacher and coworker. I want to continue to share my knowledge since as teachers we need to stick together and help each other out during these hard times.

During my time at Michigan State University in the Masters of Arts Educational Technology program, I have become a much stronger teacher. During the middle of my program, we faced the coronavirus pandemic. I was teaching completely virtual for a year and a half. I was about to try a lot of the technology I was working on in my masters classes. It was amazing to be able to test it right when I was learning about it. I know I learned a lot of things to use with my students during my Bachelors degree, but it is hard to remember everything you have learned to try, but in this case I was able to use the programs I was learning about right then and decide if I liked them or not. It was really helpful to see the programs in action and be able to reflect on them while learning about them. The education world is constantly changing and we have to be prepared for it. Going through this program has helped prepare me for anything that comes my way!