Happenings

For years my father has been after me to continue my education, to go back to school, to learn more, to be more, to do more…and I always had an excuse as to why I couldn’t. My reasons ranged from there just not being time (although I realize that if I truly wanted to I could make the time) to not having the money (again, not truly an issue if I really wanted to do it). Now, however, I can look back with the realization that those reasons were truly just excuses. The actual reason as to why I never wanted to go back to school was rooted in the fact that I just wasn’t interested in any of the masters degree programs that were available…until recently.

As many of us know there has been an increased emphasis on integrating technology into the classroom. At first, I found that emphasis frightening due to the fact that I just wasn’t sure how to do it. Oh, I knew what projects were available, I just didn’t know how to implement them within my regular curriculum. In addition, I often times just didn’t have the technological knowledge or tools at my disposal in order to complete that which I knew I should be doing. Furthermore, I also viewed the technology component as just one more thing I needed to try to fit into my day (obviously I didn’t understand the idea of integrating technology).

Then, an opportunity came my way to be part of a technology committee at my school. An opportunity with I was excited to embark upon, yet still a bit hesitant. A million questions flooded my mind. Would I be able to learn all I needed to in order to assist my colleagues? Would I be able to offer them support that would be beneficial? Would this be a worthwhile commitment or yet another endeavor that I would dread participating in simply because I didn’t have the time?

Thankfully, all of my questions were answered in an extremely positive light. I have truly enjoyed being on the technology committee and through my participation I have been given even more opportunities and also had some enlightening moments as well.

One such opportunity was given to me last summer when I attended NECC in San Antonio. I found myself a bit intimidated at first by the entire prospect of attending a technology conference. I was certain that the everyone there would know more that I did and be more capable than I in every aspect of technology. I was pleasantly surprised though to realize that many of the teachers in attendance were in the same boat as I. Many of us were there to see if we could take away just a small tidbit of technological learning that we could take back to our classrooms.

I attended many interesting sessions ranging from an introduction to podcasting (and a realization that I actually DID know what a podcast was), a session based off of using computer generated comic books and trading cards to enhance reading comprehension from Read, Write, Think, creating a school newscast, and my favorite was an interactive website called Into the Book that helps develop critical thinking skills in young readers.

All in all my experience at NECC was exciting, inspiring, and a tad bit overwhelming, but I left with a new focus. I came back to my classroom a more open mind about the role technology can play in my day-to-day classroom activities (although I still need some support in the actual integration) and with a new sense of vision as far as furthering my education. I came back having made a decision that when the time is right, technology is the direction I want to take in terms of pursuing my masters degree.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 5:26 pm and is filed under School Activities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.