As my graduation from Michigan State University’s Master of Arts in Educational Technology Program approaches I have started to think about where to go next. At this time I love my job; it is fulfilling, I work with great students and colleagues and the content is interesting. But I like to give myself options for future careers as my life will change. As of right now, I have three different avenues that I may pursue in my future. These three goals range from becoming a technology leader in a school district, working for a company outside of education to facilitate online training and learning, or continuing my education to get my Ph. D. in Educational Technology. It is important to me to learn about topics that will make me better in my current profession, a S.T.E.M. (science, technology engineering and math) Teacher, but also things that will set me up for success in any of my three future goals. Moving forward my future learning goals are:

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• become fluent in text coding using multiple languages

• become a Google Certified Educator

• learn more about Educational Technology Leadership through following the blogs created by the Office of Educational Technology 

 

        Each of these topics and goals are paired with a resource that I plan to use to teach me the skills needed to be successful. All of these resources are specific to the skill or topic I want to learn, two of the three are formal asynchronous courses that will track my understanding and facilitate learning. 

 

        When I began my first position I was expected to teach coding in all of my classes, having absolutely no experience coding. I was able to teach myself drag and drop coding using online resources and tutorials, but I am struggling to self teach text coding. In the short term I am going to enroll in Apple’s free program, Develop in Swift, a program designed to teach text coding to teachers. I like this program because it is cohesive and broad, teaching a lot of different skills within coding and computer science all for free. Apple also offers a K-12  curriculum that can be directly used in my classroom. The downfall of Apple’s program is it only teaches Swift, Apple’s coding language. To fill this gap and learn more of the mainstream languages like Java and Python, I will apply for Michigan State University's Graduate Certificate in K-12 Computer Science Education. This will give me formal training that can be brought directly into my current teaching position but also strengthen my technical computer science knowledge and strengthen my resumé.

 

        My first experience with Google Classroom was my first year of teaching, I completely underutilized the platform and missed most of the appealing features. Every year of teaching I became more and more interested in using Google Suite in my classroom. It was not until last Spring when remote learning required us to lean on Google Classroom did I realize how useful it truly is. With no formal training I know I am still missing some of the amazing potential that Google Classroom and Google Suite have to offer. My future learning goal is to become a certified Educator Level 2 using Google’s Teacher Center Training Courses. This course is asynchronous and ends with a final assessment to ensure teachers are proficient in using Google Suite. These courses will give me formal training specific to Google but will also expose me to the pros and cons of using a LMS (Learning Management System) and give me skills that can be transferable across many fields. 

 

        My last future learning goal centers around Educational Technology Leadership. I want to learn more about what a leader in educational technology would be expected to do on a district or state level, as well as, the skills needed to be an effective leader. To learn this I am going to use the blog hosted by the Office of Educational Technology. This is a reputable source that centers around Educational Technology. In addition to their useful blog there is a page specifically focused on district and state leaders in educational technology. 

 

        All three of these skills will serve me in any direction that my future may take, while making me a better S.T.E.M. educator in the short term. I am looking forward to continuing to refine my skills and become more targeted in my knowledge to fit with my future goals in the next year. 

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Image Contribution:

Apple Education:appleeducation.catalog.instructure.com

Google Education: https://edu.google.com/teacher-center/certifications/educator-level1/?modal_active=none