“If you are oriented toward learning, you need accurate information about your current abilities in order to grow effectively.”
-- Carol S. Dweck
-- Carol S. Dweck
BackgroundThanks to my Dad, I have been a digital learner from as long as I can remember. He started me off on a Commodore 64 teaching me the basics of programming, word processing and gaming. I fell in love with all things technology at an early age and this love has stayed with me throughout college and into my professional careers in law enforcement and education.
Working at the sheriff’s office, I learned to navigate several computer programs that were vital to daily department operations. Even with the rank of corporal and a wealth of computer knowledge, at the end of the day, I was still nothing more than a data entry clerk. The sheriff’s office provided absolutely no avenue to turn my digital learning into digital leading. I was 23 years old and already spinning my wheels in a huge career rut. Needing a change, I decided to leave my comfort zone in Louisiana, move to Texas and become a teacher. Eleven years later, this proved to be the best professional and personal decision of my life. Early on in my new career, I was confident in my technology background but quickly realized technology was a much different animal in the world of education. I might not have been the most tech savvy teacher on campus but I was the most fearless. My willingness to try anything led to me and my students often being the campus technology guinea pigs or “pilot program” as they would say to make it a bit more palatable for us get on board. Seven years into teaching seventh grade Science, I found myself once again in that all too familiar career rut but this time a complete change of lifestyle was not an option. Feeling lost, I was praying for a change while accepting that I would continue teaching to the best of my ability in spite of my seven year itch. In the summer of 2013, my prayers were answered when my principal said we are starting a new elective class on our campus called AVID and you are the perfect teacher to lead this charge. I honestly had no clue what being the AVID teacher would entail but that did not matter. All I heard was we want you to teach an elective full time and I was sold. I do not even remember what was said after the word elective. AVID, my saving grace, stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination and is a college readiness elective that prepares students for success in a global society. In just a few short weeks of teaching AVID, I knew that this time I had really found my one true teaching LOVE! My enthusiasm was quick to return along with my knack for incorporating technology into teaching. In this time, I was fortunate to begin the AVID class on our campus with growing the program as our first priority. My initial guinea pig class of thirty students helped me to produce an iMovie to be used as part of our recruitment and retention plan. The iMovie titled “Get AVIDized” was so well received that we increased our enrollment from 30 to 86 to 125 in just two years resulting in the hiring of an additional AVID teacher to meet our population demands. The iMovie project quickly paved the way for our next technology achievement of transitioning the traditional AVID 3-ring binder into a completely electronic binder through the use of Microsoft OneNote. With this transformation, our AVID class became the first and only class on campus to operate in a 100% paperless environment. Our technology capabilities quickly became all the buzz in Pasadena ISD and beyond. As a result, my resume filled up with opportunities to share our technology wealth allowing the digital learner in me to emerge as a digital leader. |
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