Education and Professional Background

If it were financially possible, I would be a career student.  I love to learn, and that’s a big part of why I love to teach.  My post secondary education began in 1997 when I enrolled in Malaspina University College (now Vancouver Island University) in Nanaimo, BC.  After much indecision, which led to a semester at UVic, and eight years of study, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Math and Chemistry, a Bachelor of K-12 Education and enough course credits to also minor in western literature if I had bothered to apply for it.  I have been fortunate to be employed full time for most of the last eight years since graduating and have worked in a wide variety of educational settings.  I have taught high school alternate classes to some of the most at-risk youth in the province, taught in an international high school, bricks-and-mortar high schools, an online distributed learning high school and a variety of elementary schools.  This year I have landed in an excellent elementary school and feel like I’ve found a home where I can stay long term.

A couple of years of years ago, I had to take a two month leave of absence from teaching and during that time, I discovered Twitter and blogging, and became immersed in these social media as I build a Professional Learning Network (PLN) and completely changed my philosophy of education.  Now my teaching practise is much more forward-looking, student centered and respectful of the learning needs of the students that I am trying to prepare for a very uncertain future.  One of the key changes I have implemented is Project Based Learning and much of my thought around teaching and learning focusses on how to best implement technology into this powerful teaching practise, especially in a school and district that is very limited in technology resources.

Long Term Goals
In the long term, I envision myself as a technology integration specialist in the district and/or consultant helping teachers make the most of what they have available.  Of course, my love of school and learning might also lead me toward a Ph. D.  My intention in taking the MET degree is to bolster my credentials, and give me the skills and tools I’ll need to make a career outside of the classroom one day.

Short Term Goals
In the nearer future my goals are more classroom focussed.   The admin of the elementary that I teach at has a vision to create a technology rich school that others will talk about and be envious of in the way that it is moving forward.  I plan to play a big part of that with the admin and a few other tech savvy teachers.  One requirement of this goal is to build the hardware technology infrastructure that will be required another is to build the teaching capacity in the school to effectively implement the technology we currently have, and will have in the future.  Of course building capacity in others needs to start with myself and my goals for this course are to build capacity to better teach using PBL and integrating technology as well as building online communication skills and tools including both the use of social media and an LMS of some sort.

The Tools
The tools required to meet these goals are varied and difficult to predict, however; through this course I would like to spend time evaluating multiple blogging platforms, increase my proficiency with wikis and gain some experience with alternative delivery methods including vlogs.  I am currently unsure of the usefulness of more comprehensive LMSs for my purposes, but expect to develop my thoughts on the matter through the duration of this course.