Where It Will Go Laura Rinehart October 22, 2013 Thinking about the future can be a scary thing.

We dont know what tomorrow will bring, but we need to have goals and motivation to make it through each day. My ultimate goals are to be the best teacher I can be, integrate technology into my classroom, and to teach students with passion and compassion in hope that they will learn something new each day. I dont know what tomorrow will bring, but I know where I would like it to go. I started teaching in September of 2009 and time has flown by. I was talking with a student teacher and I saw her passion for her content area and for wanting every student in the classroom to learn. I hope my same passions shine as bright as hers did today. I began to tell her how while you are student teaching there are so many things to juggletaking attendance, making lesson plans, creating unit plans, managing class behavior, doing work for your Masters classes, going to department meeting, etc. Then I laughed and told her, Well, I am still doing all those things 5 years later, but it just seems to become more natural as you go. I am sure that 5 years from now, I will be juggling many tasks. It may be as a teacher, a technology specialist, a wife, a mom, or another role, but I know it will consists of my passion for students learning, teaching, and growing as a learner. The point is practice may not make the perfect teacher, but practice makes teaching feel more natural and I hope that in the future my passion for teaching and wanting students to learn shines bright wherever I may be. Over the past year and half, I have discovered a new passion. That passion is trying to integrate technology into the classroom. It was not something entirely new to me, but an

area where I had a lot to learn. I learned that you couldnt just use a computer and call that technology. You have to use the correct pedagogy and technology together that fits best with your content area. In the future, I hope to continue to integrate technology into my Spanish classrooms. I want to do it in a way that will help students learn the content and help them to become global learners. I want to know the best technologies that can help improve Spanish learners skills so that they can go into the real world and use them! For my Dream It project for CEP 800, I talked about using technology to connect my students with the Spanish-speaking world. I explored the TPACK framework and applied it to my context, content area, and use of different pedagogies. I began creating a backwards design that would help me reach this goal in the future. I explained that I want to see a transformation of students knowing information to students understanding information. For example, in the future I no longer want to give matching test, I want to have my students take the vocabulary they know and use it in an authentic an meaningful way they understand! That may be writing to pen pals in Mexico, talking with a classroom over Skype in Spain, or listening to podcasts from Ecuador. Effectively connecting my classrooms with the Spanish-speaking world by using the TPACK framework remains one on my biggest goals. Lastly, I want to continue to grow as a learner. Technology is always changing and I will need to continue to change with it. I would like to keep up with my personal learning network both online and in person. I have joined sites such as Twitter, Merlot, MACUL, and more to keep in contact with people from all around the world that can continue to share ideas with regarding technology. I would like to keep in contact with my MAET cohorts

that I have met throughout the program and plan on doing so through Facebook, emails, and Skype. My goal when I began was not only to help students, but also to gain enough knowledge that I would be able to teach colleagues in my school about everything I have been learning about integrating technology. I am currently involved in the Technology PLC Action Team at my school, where I am able to share my ideas with my colleagues and continue to learn from them as well. I would love to continue to help colleagues in my department, in my school, and even in my district as a teacher or perhaps one day as technology integration specialist! Overall, there are so many aspects of technology and teaching that I want to keep learning and I look forward to see what my future holds. The road has been long and I have learned many great things. I dont know where it will go, but I know technology will be in my future!