Future Learning Goals

Diary of Perpetual Learner

From my earliest years, I've been driven by curiosity of the world around me. Watching and listening to my father contact faraway places on his amateur radio piqued my interest and in my adult years led me to obtain my amateur radio license as well. Wanting to know how things "worked," I would disassemble items and attempt (at times, unsuccessfully) to put them back together. The mentors that patiently spent time with me in my youth and fostered my curious spirit influenced me to pursue a career in education and guide others to explore their own learning.

Many things have changed in field of education since I began my career as an educator in the early 1990's: there was no WiFi in my school building, very few students had a cellphone, and technology was limited to using desktop computers in the school lab for writing research papers or accessing a few online resources. As I left teaching in early 2001, the process of wiring individual classrooms for their own desktop computers had begun. Fast-forwarding to my return to teaching in 2008, I was faced with having to learn how to use the school-supplied MacBook laptop and electronic grade book software. My life has certainly been one long educational adventure!

As I move into the later years of my profession, I recognize the need for continued learning on my part, especially in the area of technology and instruction. To this end, I set three goals for extending my learning after the completion of my Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program at Michigan State University: 1) to learn more about online course design, 2) to seek ways to use technology within my classroom to increase accessibility for exceptional students, and 3) to gain awareness of and implement technology effectively within my science classes.

During my MAED program I chose to take several courses in educational technology to both satisfy my personal curiosity and also to gain a working knowledge of how I could use technology within the context of my subject area. My school has a small student body and many of my students are involved in extracurricular activities which require them to miss traditional classroom instruction. I see an increasing need for these students to be able to continue their instruction and coursework outside the classroom. One solution is to construct “hybrid courses” that use a combination of traditional classroom and online instruction. The technology courses I have taken as part of my master’s program have given me a good foundation in online learning and instruction. I want to expand on the technical skills I have acquired thus far and learn more about constructing an effective, user-friendly hybrid course that meets the needs of today’s students. Two resources I currently plan to use include a blog on online instruction and learning by Debbie Morrison and the National Education Association Guide to Teaching Online Courses.

In addition to using technology to provide an alternate means of delivering instruction to my students, I have also become aware of the possibilities of using technology to accommodate students with learning challenges. Making learning more accessible to all students is both a personal and professional goal, and the number of exceptional students in my classes has been steadily increasing over the past several years. To increase my knowledge of technology that is classroom-friendly and effective, I will follow blogs such as The Tech Advocate and LD Online to find new forms of technology or new ways to use existing technology to assist all of my students.

For my third goal, I seek to find more ways to effectively use technology within the context of my science courses. Our school adopted a one-to-one Chromebook initiative last year, and I find that my knowledge of the many Google applications is inadequate. To learn more about the many options offered by Google and ways that they might be used within a classroom setting, I will apply for a grant through my school district to attend one of the Google Summits for Educators, take an online Google training course for educators, or seek out a Google Apps mentor whose expertise I could “tap into” for ideas and inspiration.

My life, in one way or another, has centered around my curiosity and my love of learning. I see myself continuing on this path of perpetual learning, searching for ways to improve myself and my educational practice. By implementing new methods and technology that help my students to learn, I also hope to foster in them a desire to continue learning after they have left my classroom and enter adulthood.