MY NOT SO SIMPLE GOALS

My Not So Simple Goals

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When thinking about my goals, I think back to the scene in the notebook when Ryan Gosling is yelling to Rachel McAdams, “What do you want? What do you want?” What do I want? What really are my goals? When asking this, I think about my students diagnosed with learning disabilities and want for them to feel comfortable and confident in a classroom, contributing with their peers. I want my students diagnosed with anxiety to be equipped with tools that help settle their minds and find their enjoyment in learning. I want for all of my students to feel a sense of belonging and competency at school.

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To come anywhere close to accomplishing these goals, I realized that I can never be complacent in my practice. I continually needed to better myself and lead through example. In 2017, I enrolled in the MAET program at Michigan State University to earn my Master of Arts in Technology. When I applied for the program, I submitted my main goal to be the following: “Through the MAET degree program, I will better my student’s and my school experience by experimenting, using, and sharing what I learn about technology with my colleagues and students.” I quickly realized that technology can be worthless if not taught and supported the proper way. This pushed me to work with my colleagues and support them in integrating various uses and teachings of technology in their classroom. Through this program, my goals did not necessarily change, but became much more specific and direct towards educating the teachers and students the advantages of using technology.

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I want to support my colleagues by not only building learners, but by also guide students to use technology and expand their capabilities. I want my students to become intrinsic learners, to be collaborative with one another, and have the opportunity to display their creativity to each other. I want my students to be able to ask deep, thought-provoking questions through their understanding of  technology. Lastly and most importantly, I want my students to experience failure, to learn from it, and to come out better students from it. The best way of accomplishing these goals is through proper educational guidance with all that technology has to offer.

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Through the courses I’ve taken in this master's program, I have realized the potential that technology offers, as well as the necessity of providing teachers the support to utilize technology to its fullest potential.  As a result, I have been able to assist in implementing a one-to-one and one-to-two technology program in my school that provides students personal and collaborative learning opportunities with new technology. My students may face more struggles than others, but technology allows them to have every opportunity to become the intrinsic learners I want them to be.  As the world continues to change though, our technology advances and changes along with it. This will make my goals become increasingly challenging to fully accomplish, but I am confident that work I am performing will help improve my school’s educational system and allow for my students to benefit from it.