As I entered the doors to my classroom in 2008, as a first year teacher, I thought to myself... "I'm done! I've done it!" How wrong was I? There is no "done" in education. It's a journey of learning and growing.

As I wrapped up my 11th year in education, I came to the realization that my journey in my own education was far from over. I knew that I needed to model "life-long learning" and challenge myself on a path of professional growth. This drive to learn and grow as lead me to Lamar University as I work towards a Masters in Education in Instructional Technology Leadership.

View My Learning Manifesto

5302 Reflections:

The most valuable lesson I've learned in this course is the need to make connections and networks in education and beyond. I've always understood the importance of collaboration and working together in the classroom, but I my weakness is to extend that concept to beyond the classroom. I realize that I need to market myself in a way that promotes my goals and my core beliefs in education. I really enjoyed learning more about the COVA model and brainstorming ideas of how to use those strategies. COVA ties in to my "why" as I firmly believe that my reason for teaching is to have students to develop their voice to make a positive impact to the world. Their voice needs to come from the ability to think critically and then choose to express their voice to an authentic audience in the real world. The ePortfoilo is helping me find my voice and allowing me to share my "why" with a greater audience than just in my classroom, it's real world experiences like this that I will share with my students and my school.