Guadalupe Bryan

After my second year of teaching seventh grade English Language Arts (ELA) at Owosso Middle School, I decided to apply for the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University. As a part of the application process, I was asked to consider what my goals were in relation to furthering my education in this direction. Looking back, many of those goals remain at the forefront of my mind as an educator, but some new priorities have arisen in the little time that has followed. 

Initially, back in 2017, I outlined the goals I had for myself in the following terms:

• Become the most effective and engaging teacher that I can be, 

• Learn how to further integrate technology in both my instruction and resources for myself and my colleagues,

• further my leadership roles upon completion of the MAET program

• Use technology to individualize learning for my students by offering support and options for students who are either struggling or would benefit from a challenge

• Learn how to access diverse texts and online resources that encourage diversity and tolerance

• Be a diversity resource to my district

The final goal listed is perhaps the most important consideration of mine as I continue to build my presence within my district and within my network of professional educators.

 

The main change I would make to the goals and visions I outlined above is regarding equity and technology. A new goal of mine has been a result of my MAET journey: I would like to use my knowledge, skill set, identity, and position in my school and community to fight for equity in terms of the right to education, technological instruction, and multimodal literacy for all students. 

The reason for this change is primarily due to the research I conducted during my second year in the MAET program. After learning about the concept of digital redlining, I was moved to see what the benefits and challenges schools (especially schools with large populations of at-risk and low-income students) faced when trying to incorporate technology meaningfully. After completing my research I realized the work I was doing in pursuit of my master's degree was completely practical and applicable to my own life and work.

 

For those reasons, a new goal of mine is to meaningfully incorporate technology in my classroom while carefully considering how students’ experiences with and access to multimodal and digital literacies can affect their achievement at school. More broadly, these considerations also play a larger role when students leave school and enter adult life. 

 

With these new goals and insights of mine, I believe my ambitions stay consistent with who I am as an individual. My personal experiences as a Latina teacher in a rural, low-income school; my childhood in a low-income, bilingual home; the prejudices and privileges I have experienced--all of these impact who I am, why I became a teacher, and the goals I have for myself, the profession, and most importantly, the students I serve.