Post #5

 

After completing my studies I hope to return to the classroom and teach for a few years. This has been my intention since applying to LET. I was forced out of classroom teaching by the COVID-19 pandemic. I still miss my students and I know that I left something unfinished that I would have otherwise relished in completing. I had planned on teaching in Shanghai for a minimum of three years when I left for vacation January 17, 2020 only to never return. 

            For this reason, I earnestly believe that I still have so much to learn when it comes to classroom teaching. I am excited to apply the skills that I will have learned about collaborative learning, learning technologies and learning environments to the learning community that I will be a part of. I have not yet decided which age group I would like to teach. However, I am leaning towards primary school. I want to be a classroom teacher for at least three years if not more so that I may hone my craft. In addition to professional development, I believe that having firsthand experience in classroom teaching will only benefit my career development and allow me to translate the information and skills that I will have garnered from LET to other applications, inside or outside the classroom.

            After gaining more experience as a classroom teacher, I hope to move into the design aspect and/or the administrative side of teaching. The biggest question mark on my horizon is whether I will work in the public or private context; whether it be a school or an educational company. It is something that I spend a lot of time thinking about. I am never quite sure how to best apply myself so that the largest number of people can benefit from the work that I do. I want the work that I do to be open source. Accessibility is everything.  It is my dream to make high quality education a reality for all learners, young or old. The internet makes the world a smaller place and with more and more people gaining access to the internet, we are on the cusp of a new information revolution that will change almost every facet of our lives. I want to guide that change in towards the least negative direction possible. It is in the best interest of many individuals and organizations to have an ignorant and subdued populace, I want to mitigate the damage that the desires of those stakeholders can do.

 I know that I do not want to be in the classroom for the entirety of my professional career. I know that I am keen to apply the skills that I have learned to curriculum design and instructional design. I do not honestly know if a PhD is in my future, that is something that will reveal itself to me as time goes on. I won’t even speculate what my PhD studies would involve because I am still trying to ascertain what my master’s thesis will include:).

 

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