Dear X,
The most important element of my classroom, my office, or my home is apersonal relationship. I have figured this out on examination of my activitiesin high school (youth group regional president), college (telephone crisiscounselor, resident advisor), or profession (teacher). As a teacher I made apoint of getting to know every student in my classes personally. It quicklybecame my experience that students were more willing to learn, work, and excelwhen they were appreciated as individuals and when they knew that the adult inthe classroom genuinely liked them.
After a few years' experience teaching seniors, I accepted a teaching job atthe middle school with the freshman class that had just learned they would notphysically be moving to the high school. How would I motivate and get to knowthese kids? Everything that I had ever heard about or remembered about 9th grademade me want to turn and run. But what convinced me to take this job wastechnology. In my interview I learned that instead of the library, I was to usethe Internet (the what?). I was told that I would receive a laptop computer(aren't those the things that people with "real" jobs used?) and that the kidscould teach me anything I needed to know.
Computers became my thing. Immediately I began to learn how to surf theInternet from 8th and 9th graders (Sanj and Judy said I was teachers' pet). Mykids opened up and set aside their raging adolescence to use technology to helpme and help each other. As the year with the freshmen continued, I wasoverjoyed. First, my kids and I had the best rapport in years (gosh Miss Glazer,are all of your PowerPoint slides gonna look the same?). Second, my creativityin teaching increased as new doors were opened to me and in turn to my students(conspiracy takes on a whole new meaning when the Internet is your primarysource). Third, I was learning new and exciting things. I had finally found acombination of skills that affected my students in such a positive way that Iknew I had to share my findings.
I have since taken my computer knowledge, instructional design ideas, plus myemphasis on personal relationships and applied it to teachers and students in mydistrict and other districts in the North Texas area.
Through the Learning, Design, and Technology program at Stanford University Ihope to continue on the route that started for me at the middle school. I knowthat I will learn new things and have an opportunity to apply them toeducational settings. I also know that I will be able to establish relationshipswith colleagues, professors, and other students. Although a master's degree isthe short term goal, I believe that my long term goal remains the same as when Ibegan using technology in my classroom three years ago: to see students bettereducated through a curriculum infused with technology by teachers who do notlose sight of the personal relationships that benefit all kids.
This long-term goal may be achieved by working in a single school, a schooldistrict, or an educational center. It may be reached by teaching new teacherson the university level, by instructing at-risk students in a countyafter-school program, or by designing a terrific new classroom model andimplementing it through a regional education lab with a grant from the U.S.Department of Education.
Whatever the job, my aim remains the same and as it did years ago with myfreshmen, I feel certain that I will use any situation to fulfill my goal tobenefit students (can you say optimistic, or is it opportunistic?)
Yours sincerely,