MY FOREVER EDUCATOR #GOALS
From the moment I turned the key to enter my very first classroom, my goal has been to create a warm, nurturing learning environment in which children are deeply cared for. I have consistently sought to make learning an exciting adventure and classmates a close-knit family.
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Upon beginning the Master’s of Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University, I hoped to learn a few tech tools to support me in this venture. I already knew of technology’s many assets. We held a Google Hangout with my German friend, Lisa, after she mailed my students Haribo gummies to try, and I watched my small town third graders check out book after book on Germany, spin the classroom globe looking for her hometown, sprint to my desk when they had learned a new German word on Duolingo the night before. I witnessed soaring levels of writing engagement when Seesaw digital learning portfolios gave them an audience, when Flipgrid allowed them to present their animal report just like a real YouTuber. Technology encouraged a lively and eager classroom culture; I hoped my coursework would only help foster it.
Maybe MAET would enlighten me of a new way to give formative assessments in my 1:1 third grade classroom or lead me to a website that would help my kiddos learn to multiply. I already used several online resources to assess mastery, communicate with families, and connect with educators around the globe, but there was likely more available to glean from. I arrived on campus the summer after my first year of teaching with a notebook in hand, ready to write down website names and iPad app suggestions.
It was not, in fact, my notebook I had in hand during my two weeks of in-person class but instead Legos, tinfoil, coding toys I had never heard of, baking utensils, and classmates who would become dear friends. Turns out, there is more to educational technology than Chromebooks, and while I left the summer with a sampling of websites to try, my notable takeaway was a renewed idea of the teacher I wanted to become: a nurturer, certainly, but also a challenger, a creativity cheerleader, a collaboration champion.
I had planned to win students over with iPad apps but now anxiously await the start of each school year to set community norms, to team-build using Squishy Circuits, and to bust out the assorted supply box for a few hands-on experiments. MAET has altered my view of teaching with technology in mind.
No longer do I search for links to throw in Google Classroom but rather consciously seek opportunities for my students to be creators, explorers, and sharers. May this be my educator goal until I turn the key in my classroom door for the very last time.