Looking back……. How things have and have not changed Tammy Roosa
When I started my journey of obtaining my Masters of Art in Education I was filled with hope and excitement of what was to come. Being a Special Education major I was looking forward to working with a focus in Math and Science. I knew up front that these would be difficult subject areas for me being that I had very little background knowledge from a teaching perspective in either subject. I wrote my original professional statement in March of 2011. In February of 2013 I am still filled with that hope and excitement. My goal of helping to better my students educationally and myself professional has remained unchanged.
As I reflect on my Professional Goal Statement that I submitted for admission I am surprised at the fact that my goals are still the same. I had not read my statement in several years and I thought for sure I would have a different view of my personal and professional goals. I am still working towards improving my teaching style in helping to better educate my students and through this process have realized and come to appreciate that it will be a career long endeavor. I am also still working on incorporating technology into my student’s everyday lives other than them just texting, using Facebook, or posting trending articles. I have learned that you can take these types of technology and incorporate them into the classroom; this was a wonderful realization as an educator. I have learned that Facebook or other like social media outlets could be used as a great tool to keep both parents and students posted any events taking place in the classroom. I previously believed that social media was only good for posting what people had for dinner. I have now realized that Facebook can be used for so much more than that.
Over the course of this program I have become much more technology savvy. This was something that I specifically put in my original statement as being an area of concern. Taking an on-line program has allowed me to explore technology in a manner that I do not think I would have benefited from in a classroom setting.