Soon to be Tech Specialist!

Is soon too soon?

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It’s crazy to believe the school year is almost over! It’s even crazier to believe that I am so close to completing my technology endorsement! Throughout the course of EDU 781, I continued to enhance my mind about the roles of a technology specialist. What’s more is that I created a pilot experience of a creation station for my school. Now, prior to last year, I had no clue what a creation station was. However, when I did my student teaching, I was exposed to such awesome materials and technology to get students involved in STEM. Thus, I knew I wanted to tackle this because our current library lacks resources and engagement for our younger elementary students since the library is shared with both the primary and middle school. 
To begin, the process was both easy and difficult. I received a lot of support from many teachers and my principal. Our school is 1:1 iPads and is always trying to make resources tech friendly for our students to access or use in the classroom. However, my most challenging aspect was time. I would have wished to have accomplished so much more, however 8 weeks was not enough. Although I did create a creation station corner, it did lack many resources. I would have wished to have had the opportunity to access more tech tools for students to explore and learn about such as circuit boards and kid-friendly robots. 

Thoughts? Overall...

Although EDU 781 has come to an end, I am determined to continue this pilot experience and making adaptations for the next school year! I think it was a great experience to have done this before the end of the school year. Not only did I get students engaged to new possible changes to the library , but also created excitement about the STEM field! Creation station has so much more potential. I am so excited to continue to plan with my team for new materials for the next school year! 
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The pilot experience enhanced my growth as a future Technology Leader/Change Agent because I was able to experience just a glimpse of what a technology leader does within a short period of time. I enjoyed having the role and being responsible for this new and positive change for our school. When I first learned about all of the responsibilities a change agent does, I was overwhelmed. However, I came to learn that a change agent tackles these responsibilities because they want to bring change into the work/learning setting. Admin, educators, and students rely on a technology leader. Thus, it is important to be passionate about this role in order to be successful with it. 

I hope to complete my final course for the technology specialist in early June. I am set to take the content test in August! If all goes well, I hope to use this endorsement to enhance technology usage in the classroom and around my school!

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