“To bloom, to flourish, to reach for the sun, this growing, this becoming, is never quite done."
-p.bodi
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On June 30th of this year, I boarded a plane with my fiancé and his immediate family for my first trip to Sweden to visit his Farfar (Father's father in Swedish). We spent one week exploring Stockholm, Sweden alongside of about 15 other family members. By the fourth day of travel, Christian, my fiancé's cousin, announced that he wanted to get a tattoo while in Sweden.
At this point, I did not have any tattoos, though I planned to get a few later in life. After only a few minutes of discussion, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and join him. It didn't take long to decide what I wanted: the words "Keep Growing" with some kind of foliage underneath on my arm; a visible reminder of a phrase that I hold close to my heart.
On the morning of July 7th, 2023, we took the metro train to Gamla Stan, Sweden, walked into Latino Ink, and left hours later with fresh tattoos.
After our two week trip, I returned home and began to prepare for the first day of my fourth year teaching. As I started to prepare, I was left reflecting on how much I have grown not only in the previous three years, but truly in the last 5 months or so. It was kismet that just one week prior I had permanently tattooed the words "Keep Growing" on my arm.
I consider myself a life-long learner, both professionally and personally, and so I took this unplanned coincidence as an opportunity to create a few professional goals that I hope to achieve in the coming years. Over the course of the next 5 years, I hope to grow in my skills as an EdTech leader, learn more about the implementation of virtual manipulatives in my math classroom, and work toward becoming a more skilled Canva user.
Goal 1: Becoming an EdTech Leader
Alongside of being a 5th grade teacher, I also currently serve as the Instruction Technology Resource Teacher (ITRT) for my building. Through this role, I collaborate with other ITRTs in my district to enhance the integration of technology in all classrooms. I pilot potential updated technology and provide feedback, hold workshops and training sessions related to technology integration, and act as the go-to tech supporter for our building-wide staff.
As an ITRT, I have been provided opportunities to hold leadership positions regarding technology integration and have found throughout these experiences that I feel challenged and encouraged to grow as an educator. For this reason, I have decided to make it a goal of mine to seek out technology leadership opportunities in my building and district, with the possibility of moving to a full-time Educational Technologist role in the future. To help achieve this goal, I have identified two graduate level professional development courses through Teaching Channel that I plan to enroll in.
The first course is titled "Developing Your Leadership Story", a course intended to help educators created a personal leadership philosophy that is well-aligned with leadership best practices. The second course, "Choose Your Own EdTech Adventure" acts as an independent study course in which the learner identifies an EdTech tool to become an expert on.
Goal 2: Enhancing Mathematical Instruction With Virtual Manipulatives
Goal 3: Becoming a Skilled Canva User
As I always find, taking time to create and adapt future goals has left me feeling empowered and inspired. These three goals truly portray a promising professional future full of growth and learning that I eagerly await.
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