Throughout my educational career I have gained extensive background knowledge in not only how students learn, but how important the relationship building process is in the field of education. The technology that we utilize during instruction in our field can be such a crucial part of this, allowing teachers to build on the positive relationships they have created with students to find new pathways that allow students to learn in different ways.
These experiences have culminated with my time in the ISDT program where I have learned to hone my skills as an educator and focus on research principles that can help drive a better learning experience for my audience. My courses of study and my time learning from my professors and fellow cohort members has provided me with a more broad perspective on instructional design and delivery to help enhance my scope of developing improved learning environments.
The timing of this learning experience for me has also come at a unique time both in my career in education and in the overall world of education. I was hired as the Director of Technology for Millsap ISD in December of 2018 and successfully implemented various technology growth projects during my 14+ months in that position prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I have implemented skills and strategies that I have learned in the curriculum of our courses, but also from the modeling of course design by our professors throughout my time in the ISDT program. However, my Distance Learning and Leadership in Technology Admin courses taken in the summer of 2020 were specifically applicable to my everyday work at the time. I was able to spend the time embedding the research I had done in my courses to the plan that we developed for our school district to deliver both face to face and remote learning to our students throughout the 20-21 school year.
Career Goals
I have been lucky to be able to achieve many of my career goals leading up to my current position as an instructional leader driving technology usage in and out of the classroom. However, the challenges of improving the world of education by utilizing the tools at our disposal never go away. Whether the world throws a worldwide pandemic at you that forces you to completely redesign the way instruction is provided, or the ever-changing technological landscape provides new tools that can help teachers and students, we never stop growing.
While I may have not quite reached the pinnacle of my career as far as the position I currently hold, I am much closer to the highest I want to climb on the career ladder than I was previously. However, my professional growth within my position is a ladder with an infinitely long extension. The ISDT program has helped me not only identify ways that I can improve in my own position, but has also provided me with the tools on how to effectively grow myself and the people around me in research based tactics.
While the future is unknown, I have had some clarity into my career goals in recent months helping me get a better understanding of where my future can go. I recently participated in an activity where we read the book Strengths Based Leadership by Don Clifton. We took the CliftonStrengths assessment to see where our strengths were and how we worked best with others around us. My top strength was an “Achiever”. When reading about how a person who identifies as an “Achiever” works best, it mentions that sometimes these individuals can be promoted because they are a self-starter. However, that can wind up to be a detriment because it pulls that person away from the work that they do best. I think this is a perfect description of my role in education.
I enjoy my job…A LOT. However, at this time in my life I do not have the aspirations to move up to the top of the ladder, moving into the Superintendency or any role of that nature. I feel my talents are best spent in a role where I can lead a team, but also be close enough to our consumer (teachers and students) to get my hands dirty from time to time and directly support them. Ultimately, my goal is to improve education for students, and I have a great platform to do that where I currently stand.
However, I also would enjoy getting back to teaching at some point in my career. While I do not ever see myself returning to a K12 classroom, I do feel that I would be great in a role where I could teach aspiring teachers about technology integration. Whether that be in a post-secondary environment or in a certification program, I think I have a lot to give in that area. I am hoping that this program can possibly open that door for me somewhere down the line.
Focus Area
My focus area is broad, much like the world of education. My goal is to improve learning in every aspect, so that will lead itself to many general studies on how different technology resources can affect learning in the classroom. However, I hope to not only study this across multiple age groups and demographics, but also multiple contents. I think there are ways that we can utilize the technology that students already have to improve learning in multiple curricular environments, not just the typical four core (English, Math, Science, and Social Studies) contents.
An educator’s goal is to help their students learn and become productive citizens in the world we live in, and I can think of no better way to achieve that goal than to teach them how to properly use the modern tools we all have at our disposal in educational ways that can help lead them to success later in their lives.
My biggest focus is on how, where, and when we communicate. As you’ll see in my Scholarship section, I hope to focus on how modern technology has changed the way we communicate. This encompasses access to educational tools and opportunities not available in the past, learning opportunities and job roles previously unavailable as a result of the use of information and communications technology, and the use of social media as a means of communication and learning in our society. While it seems like these three things may not quite fit into one tight group, they are all a major part of the world of education.
In the end, the field we work in is learning. No matter who is doing the learning; teachers, students, or both, our goal is to promote and improve it across the board. Therefore, how we communicate using digital tools that were not available in the generations previous to ours has to be front and center when we plan the best way to do our jobs. This is why I have done so much work helping teachers communicate with their students in a world where they are sometimes separated as a result of proximity, special situations, or worldwide pandemics. In the end, how we communicate is the most important aspect of learning. Without learning how to get the proper information to learners in the best medium possible, we are climbing an infinitely massive hill and will never find the top.
Knowledge/Expertise
My research goals and focus area come from my knowledge and expertise in the world of education. As a classroom teacher for six years I taught high school students in multiple subject areas (English, Business, Graphic Design, and Journalism) and supported other teachers with technology integration and as a literacy coach on my campus. It was in this classroom where my passion for educating students was sparked. Watching my students grow not only educationally but personally was the most rewarding experience of my life, and it made me realize that I always wanted to be a part of helping people learn.
After leaving the classroom I joined our district’s Educational Technology department where I supported teachers in technology integration full time. It was in this department where I was introduced to utilizing social media as a professional development tool, and to different research based practices that helped students learn. I quickly learned that although many of my attempts to help improve student learning in my previous capacity had great intentions, they were not always led by research based tactics. Thus an interest in research began, and eventually led me down the path to this ISDT program.
Thanks to my professors’ engaging courses led with real-world application, I have been able to take much of my coursework and apply it to what I do on a day to day basis. I have taken research and practices that I have learned in the ISDT program and used them in designing professional development, providing remote supports for teachers, and designing protocols and procedures for remote learning.
As I continue through this program I hope to hone my skills as a researcher so that I can provide more insight on ways to improve what we are currently doing. This will involve immense learning experiences in statistical analysis and qualitative analysis so that I can have the proper approach to a study and ensure that the results of the study are depicted in the most accurate fashion.