I started my post secondary education a little bit differently than most, I went to college here in BC for a year before I decided that I was a bit lost. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher but College here sent me on several directions as I couldn’t get courses I wanted etc. I went to a softball training camp and was asked to join a junior colleges roster in Kansas, USA on a full ride scholarship. I jumped on the opportunity as it allowed me to take all the courses I needed to get to where I wanted to be as well as allowing me to play my dream on the field. I spent two years there and continued on to a University in North Dakota. This University offered a teacher program, it was amazing. I took all the courses I needed to be a teacher, it was very elementary education based and I did lessons and bulletin boards that I still use today. From there I came back home and completed my final practicum in BC in order to be BCTF certified. Due to my educational path, I was put at a category 4 instead of a 5, I had all the same qualifications and credits but because the USA goes a slightly different route, I had to do some additional classes here. I chose long and hard and decided that one day I would love to be a Librarian. I enrolled in the Librarian and Literacy Education program at UBC and finished my associates. I loved the program, the online platform as well as felt a huge sense of achievement being a UBC student after the path I started on. When I did this, I convocated and one of my professors asked me to think about continuing my education at UBC with a masters degree. This sparked some thought and I had to really decide what I wanted to gain and where I wanted to go as many of the masters programs are aimed in the leadership position to become principals etc. I knew I didn’t want to be a principal but I did know I wanted to continue my educational travel. I have always been the technology rep at my school, amongst my friends and in my family. My dad is the Western Sales Rep for AeroHive which has many educational technology components. He is constantly at conferences etc, and came across a Prof from UBC in the MET program. This is where it all began and where I began very interested in the program. I want to develop as a teacher, a professional and a person. I love being up to date and knowing what new trends, and issues with educational technology. I feel we will see a change in the curriculum and educational path and I want to not just be a part of the trend but be there helping initiate them and being actively engaged in seeing change. Our students are constantly growing and developing as this is their lives and their world and I want to ensure I am educated to ensure they learn the right paths and learn to use these new trends and devices/tools in the correct and most informative way.
So far in MET I have been exposed to sharing tools, platforms and new multimedia. I am hoping that through this course I will learn how to transform these ideas into my direct teaching. I have recently been assigned to a straight Grade 3 classroom and looks like I will be staying there for a while. So I would like to look at the curriculum, and learn how to adapt my teaching to follow the curriculum but by using technology in a fun and useful way. I want to develop lessons, find new tools, websites and platforms that can support my teaching and engage my learners in a way that I haven’t yet explored. I feel like this kind of a plan will be ongoing and take a long time to perfect as it will constantly be growing and developing. My goal is to use this course as a opportunity to incorporate new ideas and lessons into every part of the curriculum without over using and within the time constraints we face as educators. I am not entirely sure what this looks like yet, and I am still gray on details but I will begin by listing out the learning outcomes I want to address or topic areas.
This is just the beginning but I would like to come up with fun ways to explore these areas in particular with the opportunity to further my findings into all core areas and elaborate on these PLO’s.
References:
BC Ministry of Education.(2010) Grade 3 curriculum package. Retrieved from: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/curric_grade_packages/gr3curric_req.pdf