Kate’s Flight Path

I’ve wanted to be a teacher since the final years of high school, and perhaps a little too single-mindedly therefore tailored my University experience to ensure I left with the requisites required for my future ‘teachables’. Prior to going to teacher’s college I was accepted into the JET (Japanese Exchange Teaching) Programme, which placed English speakers into Japanese high schools through a government initiative. Before I left Japan I applied to teacher’s colleges in Ontario, undeterred by my difficult experiences overseas in my desire to teach. All I wanted to do was get into Toronto schools, and start working with students similar to those I went to school with – complicated, diverse, sometimes troubled, but always worth your time when you gave it to them. I was sure this was my path.

Seven years later, I have not taught a single day within any school board. I’ve volunteered, but have as of yet been shut-out of the system that I still feel so drawn to. I like to think it’s not because of some failing on my part, other than bland-looking qualifications – and while I’ve harbored disappointment I’ve decided that there must be something I’m meant to be doing in the meantime.

I consider my time within a small International private school in Mississsauga as fortunate, indeed, as it has been some of the most grueling work I’ve ever done. With five periods in a day and four periods to teach as a full-time teacher, plus all the mandatory extras we are required to do, it’s often felt like ‘teaching bootcamp’. I started in their English and ESL department, and after three years was offered an interim Head-ship as an LTO of sorts. When another department Head left a few months later I stepped over to fill the gap made in the Social Sciences department, and have been the Head there for the last two and a half years. Because of the slightly unorthodox nature to the school (I was a junior teacher instructing senior students, and a Head twice over without the usual requirements), the learning curve has been sharp – but that’s just how I like it. I’ve been able to grow as a leader, educator, and collaborator in a way that may have otherwise been restricted to me if I had immediately gotten into the public system.   Thanks to a Head of School with a love of technology, I have enjoyed a 1:1 device:student ratio, and the ability to apply many of the techniques and ideas learned in my progress through the MET thus far with total autonomy. I have, essentially, been given free rein to practice the ISTE Standards for Teachers (2016).

All of that said, I will be leaving the school at the end of January 2016, as I feel that the demands of the ‘business’ have begun to out-weigh the needs of the school, and my ability to continue growing is being pushed aside along with them. I have felt re-invigorated through the MET in the short year since I started, and given a direction within my teaching practice that I want to pursue with as much vigor as possible, while I can.

While I feel like less of a ‘novice professional’ than I did at the start of this program, I know I still have a great deal to learn about the ways in which technology can best serve our students. As cited in Chickering & Ehrmann (1996), while technology is not in itself ‘enough’ to meet standards of good practice (p. 6), it is the vehicle through which their seven principles can be met in convenient and rich forms.   To use figurative language, it opens up the world – and allows teachers to tell students their expectations, abilities, and preferences are also thusly open. As previously discussed in weeks past on our forums, however, teachers know this is a double-edged sword, as the chances for irresponsibility, abuse, and chaos are increased along with this freedom. So I suppose that is where an LMS comes in.

I have experience with LMSystems including: Edmodo, WikiClassrooms, and site platforms like iSites, Weebly, and Wix. I have learned how to navigate these through trial and error, with lots of online guides and YouTube videos as helpers. As of yet, I haven’t found one that best marries course content, assessment, social interaction, and student co-creation – but I admit this may be due to my own lack of time and expertise to experiment. I keep hearing about the mysterious ‘Moodle’, which as of yet is still an uncategorized creature in the wild I’ve only read about.

What I am most hoping to learn during this course, and the MET in general, is how to best use technology to guide students in their learning in way that teaches them not just course content, but skills like inquisitiveness, constructive collaboration, independent problem solving, and ‘grit’. I don’t know that further exposure to other kinds of LMS platforms is what I need (other than those darn Moodles), but instead the ability to personally evaluate and manipulate an LMS to meet my big pedagogical learning goals. The early readings we have done on how to best evaluate resources have helped bring this into focus, although I have not yet felt provided with (or motivated to) dig my hands in and start asking the really tough questions about how LMS platforms both succeed and fail our students. However, I do think that this will come with time; time I will be taking back from my demanding job and instead giving to my studies, and to questions I am ready to start investing in to answer.

References:

Chickering, A.W., & Ehrmann, S.C., (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 1-6. Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/aticles/sevenprinciples.htm

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-teachers