How Does Your Garden Grow?
My Future as a Learner
By Sonja Brooks
A garden represents building on the past. It represents beauty and excitement with a few weeds along the way. It represents new beginnings. It represents the future.
Growth as a learner began for me with my formal university education. I planted the seeds of my education in Elementary Education Studies followed by a Masters focusing on integrating technology in meaningful ways to aide student achievement. As I look to the future, I don't see myself attaining another full degree. Rather, I see myself seeking out additional courses in educational technology to fulfill certificate requirements and my passion for learning about and integrating meaningful technology with the students. In this time of rapid technological change and globalization formal educational training is a great asset. In the past I have leaned on informal training and exploration to guide my way through technology, but through the MAET program I have learned so much about technology in relationship to education. Formal training is important to enhance informal training and challenge me in ways I haven't been challenged before.
In growing as a learner, I will continue to seek informal education and training outside of the universities. Within my own school district I will seek to become proficient in the technologies currently available to us. At Professional Development, I will participate in sessions informing us of new technologies our district is using or has purchased and how to successfully implement them in the classroom. I will seek to attend conferences when possible such as the MACUL conference to learn more about rapidly changing technologies. There are numerous resources in colleagues who have learned about various technologies, websites, and projects to tap into in my school district, through the MAET program, and other friends. These resources are priceless as we all work together for the benefit of our students.
By fulfilling the role of a technology leader, I hope to encourage, nurture and strengthen learning growth in others with whom I work. I will share the knowledge I have gained as we move forward teaching students with best practices in technology. I will be there to help troubleshoot, develop new ideas, and be on the forefront as new technological territory is explored.
Through various websites such as Donors Choose and local grants available from my school, I will write grants to bring technology into the classroom. I have a vision for an "i read" station in my classroom, using "i touch" technology to excite children about reading through digital books. In the past, I have written grants to bring additional materials in the classroom. In the future, I will be sure to look at technological solutions to problems of practice. I will make sure the technology I am seeking is meaningful to student achievement.
I see my own classroom as harvest time. My garden has been tended with care, risks have been taken, weeds have been pulled. It's time to use the knowledge I have gained as a life-long learner and put it into practice. Student learning is the driving force behind everything I seek to accomplish as a learner/educator. I intend to give it all back to the students for their futures. In my classroom I will implement technology in significant ways that relate to student achievement rather than just using technology for technologies' sake. I will continually evaluate my purposes and methods to make certain I have the right motives at heart.
So how does my garden grow? With continuing education, both formal and informal, writing technology grants, presenting myself as a technology leader among colleagues, and implementing meaningful technology in my classroom I will continue my growth as a learner. And because of this... my students too will bloom.
Growth as a learner began for me with my formal university education. I planted the seeds of my education in Elementary Education Studies followed by a Masters focusing on integrating technology in meaningful ways to aide student achievement. As I look to the future, I don't see myself attaining another full degree. Rather, I see myself seeking out additional courses in educational technology to fulfill certificate requirements and my passion for learning about and integrating meaningful technology with the students. In this time of rapid technological change and globalization formal educational training is a great asset. In the past I have leaned on informal training and exploration to guide my way through technology, but through the MAET program I have learned so much about technology in relationship to education. Formal training is important to enhance informal training and challenge me in ways I haven't been challenged before.
In growing as a learner, I will continue to seek informal education and training outside of the universities. Within my own school district I will seek to become proficient in the technologies currently available to us. At Professional Development, I will participate in sessions informing us of new technologies our district is using or has purchased and how to successfully implement them in the classroom. I will seek to attend conferences when possible such as the MACUL conference to learn more about rapidly changing technologies. There are numerous resources in colleagues who have learned about various technologies, websites, and projects to tap into in my school district, through the MAET program, and other friends. These resources are priceless as we all work together for the benefit of our students.
By fulfilling the role of a technology leader, I hope to encourage, nurture and strengthen learning growth in others with whom I work. I will share the knowledge I have gained as we move forward teaching students with best practices in technology. I will be there to help troubleshoot, develop new ideas, and be on the forefront as new technological territory is explored.
Through various websites such as Donors Choose and local grants available from my school, I will write grants to bring technology into the classroom. I have a vision for an "i read" station in my classroom, using "i touch" technology to excite children about reading through digital books. In the past, I have written grants to bring additional materials in the classroom. In the future, I will be sure to look at technological solutions to problems of practice. I will make sure the technology I am seeking is meaningful to student achievement.
I see my own classroom as harvest time. My garden has been tended with care, risks have been taken, weeds have been pulled. It's time to use the knowledge I have gained as a life-long learner and put it into practice. Student learning is the driving force behind everything I seek to accomplish as a learner/educator. I intend to give it all back to the students for their futures. In my classroom I will implement technology in significant ways that relate to student achievement rather than just using technology for technologies' sake. I will continually evaluate my purposes and methods to make certain I have the right motives at heart.
So how does my garden grow? With continuing education, both formal and informal, writing technology grants, presenting myself as a technology leader among colleagues, and implementing meaningful technology in my classroom I will continue my growth as a learner. And because of this... my students too will bloom.