Why My Goals Will Never Really be "Accomplished"
Posted October 2011
The first time I read the flier in my email about Michigan State University’s three-course certificate program that began a Master of Arts degree program in Educational Technology, I thought to myself: that sounds like something for me! After reading more about the program, I decided before even starting my classes that I would go all the way for the degree once I completed my certificate. The experience of studying educational technology in a formal setting aligned my passion for best practices in education with an interest and adeptness for working with and using technology that had been fostered in all of my growing up years.
I started the certificate program in the fall of 2009, the beginning of my second year as an educator. The following spring, my goal statement for applying to the master’s program was focused on learning to use technology that applied to my profession for the sake of making learning better for students—as opposed to using it simply because it was new and there. I also wanted to learn about what opportunities were becoming available specifically to my students in middle and high school math classes, as enhancing my own classroom with whatever will engage and assist my own students is most important to me. I wanted to become a leader in technology in my workplace by being able to assist others in endeavoring towards these same goals in their own classrooms, to “spread the wealth” so to speak and benefit more students in the school community.
Now, as I complete the degree program, I find that my goals have remained consistently focused throughout and will stay into the future. My classroom has noticeably been impacted as I apply this viewpoint of enhancing the learning process and fostering deeper understanding through the use of technology. I have met those goals in a beginning-stages sort of way, and plan to continue seeking these goals that can be applied to an ever-changing method of teaching as technology continues to evolve and change throughout my career. Completing this degree has instilled in me a method for critically analyzing technology available for its usefulness towards an end of best practices in teaching, and has left in me a desire to assess opportunities before me and make the best decision possible about how to go forward. This isn't a thing that can be ever truly accomplished in the sense that is is done, but rather a checkpoint for continuing to change my classroom and my methods always in response to the world in which we live. This end is one that I will go forward towards with a newly formed deeper appreciation for the technological world—a world that has quickly become the norm in society for my students of today and my students in the future.
The first time I read the flier in my email about Michigan State University’s three-course certificate program that began a Master of Arts degree program in Educational Technology, I thought to myself: that sounds like something for me! After reading more about the program, I decided before even starting my classes that I would go all the way for the degree once I completed my certificate. The experience of studying educational technology in a formal setting aligned my passion for best practices in education with an interest and adeptness for working with and using technology that had been fostered in all of my growing up years.
I started the certificate program in the fall of 2009, the beginning of my second year as an educator. The following spring, my goal statement for applying to the master’s program was focused on learning to use technology that applied to my profession for the sake of making learning better for students—as opposed to using it simply because it was new and there. I also wanted to learn about what opportunities were becoming available specifically to my students in middle and high school math classes, as enhancing my own classroom with whatever will engage and assist my own students is most important to me. I wanted to become a leader in technology in my workplace by being able to assist others in endeavoring towards these same goals in their own classrooms, to “spread the wealth” so to speak and benefit more students in the school community.
Now, as I complete the degree program, I find that my goals have remained consistently focused throughout and will stay into the future. My classroom has noticeably been impacted as I apply this viewpoint of enhancing the learning process and fostering deeper understanding through the use of technology. I have met those goals in a beginning-stages sort of way, and plan to continue seeking these goals that can be applied to an ever-changing method of teaching as technology continues to evolve and change throughout my career. Completing this degree has instilled in me a method for critically analyzing technology available for its usefulness towards an end of best practices in teaching, and has left in me a desire to assess opportunities before me and make the best decision possible about how to go forward. This isn't a thing that can be ever truly accomplished in the sense that is is done, but rather a checkpoint for continuing to change my classroom and my methods always in response to the world in which we live. This end is one that I will go forward towards with a newly formed deeper appreciation for the technological world—a world that has quickly become the norm in society for my students of today and my students in the future.