JILLIAN HATTIE
A SPONGE LIKE KINDERGARTEN
FUTURE LEARNING GOALS ESSAY
I have known that I wanted to be a teacher since kindergarten. I was a bright-eyed five-year-old who thought the world of my kindergarten teacher and soaked in every word that she said. With such a strong foundation to start off my formal learning adventure, my love for school and for learning has continued throughout my life and into my teaching career. I continue to have that love to learn more and better myself as an educator, and take up any opportunity that I come across to do so. I strive to be the best that I can be, and know that in order to do that I need to have the same five-year-old mentality of soaking up any learning opportunity that crosses my path. With that being said, as I continue to grow and learn as an educator, I have three goals that I strive to work toward. The first goal is to learn more and grow as a technology leader in my building, the second goal is to integrate more technology in my students’ learning, and the third goal is to integrate more social emotional learning in my instruction.
BECOMING A TECHNOLOGY LEADER
When I first started taking courses for my Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) degree, I didn’t know what an impact it would have on my teaching. After my first summer of hybrid classes, I noticed a difference in my own mindset as I went back to school that fall. I was more open-minded, more willing to take risks and try new things, and more confident in my ability to work through challenges. My goal and my hope is to help my colleagues feel confidence in the areas that they’d like to learn more about as well. In terms of this goal, I’d like to learn strategies that would help me to better assist my colleagues in their own learning, find resources to help them, and learn productive ways to share my knowledge. As I was doing some research on this goal, it seems that becoming a Google Certified Educator would be a good place to start. Google Suites is widely used in my district, so it seems that would be a great start to learn a little bit more about a resource that is already widely used. With a little more knowledge, I could potentially begin to teach others a few new tricks that they may not already know about.
INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY
This goal is one that I’d like to build upon. I do integrate technology into my teaching, but the goal is to do it more diligently and consistently. Currently, I use technology here and there. I have a few go-to apps that I use frequently, but I know that there are more tools out there that I could explore and use as a learning tool on a more regular basis. My first step toward reaching this goal is to do some research on what tools I could use appropriately for what subjects. I took a look at Cool Tools for Schools, which is an online resource sponsored by the New York State School Library Systems, in order to gain more knowledge on the tools and resources out there and the ways to use them. I plan to start there, gather a list of the resources that fit practically with what I’m teaching, and begin to implement those tools in my instruction.
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
As a second-grade teacher, teaching my students how to manage their feelings and emotions is something that I see a need for and would personally like to improve upon in my teaching. My district currently has a program set up where a teacher comes into all of the second-grade classes across the schools and teaches lessons on being mindful. The kids are very receptive to the breathing strategies and the read aloud stories that she uses to connect with the students. However, this program lasts for six weeks, so the goal that I have for myself is to devote more time to social-emotional strategies throughout the day, and not just in the six weeks that we have mindfulness lessons. I found a blog post titled 21 Simple Ways to Integrate Social Emotional Learning Throughout the Day. Looking through the strategies, they all seem manageable to weave into our daily activities, so I plan to start doing so immediately.
Learning new things can sometimes feel a little overwhelming and scary. The kindergarten me soaked everything up like a sponge, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been a little terrified of my learning throughout the years. However, I feel that these three goals are manageable and valuable to my students and colleagues. By doing a little digging, I feel confident in my abilities to improve my teaching, which will in turn improve my students’ learning. Which, if you think about it, is the most important goal of all.