Career+and+Leadership+Goals


 * [[file:02 Career & Leadership Goals McDaniels.doc]]

Career and Leadership Goals** Throughout the course of the Educational Technology Leadership Program at Lamar University, I have learned a great deal about technology, as well as school leadership. I feel as if I have been exposed to a number of very innovative tools, software programs, and ideas that will have a significant impact on the role I play in the future of education. I have taught school for seventeen years now, and I have long felt like something big must change in education if we are going to gain and hold the interest of the obviously bored, but possibly artistic geniuses that we face in our classrooms every day. Clearly, students have become disinterested and disengaged with school. Consequently, measures must be taken to address this issue. One of the first steps in addressing students' apathy toward learning and education, and converting this attitude into enthusiasm, is the implementation of technology. The focus on professional development and the integration of technology to assist in professional development, as well as content sharing among educators, should be a priority among school districts. This will be a primary concern that I attempt to address in my future role as a school leader. In addition, many of the learning theories we have studied in this program, such as Project Based Learning and the Constructivist Theory, have been ideas that I strongly believe in and will encourage teachers to implement on my campus in the upcoming year.

Although I would have liked to gain a position as a District Technology Leader for the upcoming school year, I recently learned that my district has restructured the technology department in a way that eliminates that possibility for me. I was somewhat disappointed to discover this initially. However, now that I have had some time to process this information, I have come to realize that I will be better prepared to successfully fill that position in the future. To be specific, I have come to realize that I need to use the upcoming school year to apply and implement all the new tools and strategies that I have been exposed to throughout the course of this program. I feel that the program was quite rigorous and fast-paced, especially considering the full time responsibilities of a teacher and many personal setbacks I experienced throughout this program. Therefore, I will use the upcoming year to develop my skills and grow, while teaching others and sharing the knowledge I have gained to help move my campus forward. I plan to begin with an assessment of the most recent AEIS report to identify our campus' lowest sub population and content area, which will more than likely be similar to the previous year's data. In accordance with what the data indicate, I plan to specifically address the target needs at my school by creating and participating in professional learning communities, Wikis, Blogs, and Google Sites, where tutorials on software tools and academic content information (universally designed lessons, rubrics, student-centered learning activities, etc.) can be easily accessed to target the specific areas of concern. I would like to further develop the professional development activities that I created throughout the course of this program and create additional activities to share with the educators on my campus. As I develop these professional development activities and collaborate with others in doing so, I hope to share them district wide and even globally by presenting them in an online format. Eventually, I would like to be promoted to a more administrative position, where I am responsible for helping teachers integrate technology into their lessons and classrooms. In this scenario, I would work with teachers and students together, traveling between different schools to facilitate in completing technology units and projects. I am particularly interested in Macintosh programs, such as iMovie and Garageband, so it would be ideal for me to be a specialist in integrating software programs like this into the curriculum. Alternatively, I would like to collaborate with Apple in their educational department to work with schools and implementing their tools in the field of education. Another possibility I have considered is the field of professional development in the area of technology integration. I feel that it would be nice to work specifically with teachers, training them to use technology in ways that they have not in the past. Currently, I am often called upon to assist other teachers in my building or answer questions in regard to technology, due to my experience and interest in the field. I enjoy helping others, and many of my co-workers seem comfortable in calling on me for guidance and opinions on technology integration. Therefore, I feel qualified to be a leader in improving our campus.

I am very passionate about teaching. It is not just a paycheck to me. I want to see my students get excited about learning and growing. Among students, I want to see an internal desire to discover and seek new information. It is no easy task to create this motivation and inspire students to find their own internal fire. In all of my experience, I have never found tools more effective in doing this, than a movie camera, music, or some other form of digital media. These tools, accompanied by educational units calling for students to learn, as they create and design, are tools and methods that I have found to be highly effective. I would like to pursue this path and lead other educators and students toward a revolution in education. A revolution in which students and teachers, alike, are excited about going to school and learning, teaching, creating, and sharing. I feel that I will be successful in this endeavor, as I consider myself to be an individual of the "digital native" mindset, who personally relates to learners' growing experiences as a result of technology integration in education. Prior to and throughout the course of this program, I have participated in and designed several technology based lessons and units that will serve as a strong example to my colleagues and co-workers. Several of my educationally based music videos and instructional videos are posted online to demonstrate my creativity and effectiveness in this field. These sample lessons and units will demonstrate my competence in the field of technology, and provide others with a model to guide them in integrating technology in their classrooms. Collaboration and sharing among professional educators will ultimately be an important part of addressing the target areas of concern necessary to improve overall student achievement and school performance.