If someone would have told me fifteen years ago that I would be teaching computers today (and love doing so), I would have said they were crazy. For as long as I can remember, English was my thing. I majored in English at the university and earned graduate degrees in ESOL and Linguistics. My intention was always to pursue a career related to English (i.e. teacher, researcher, editor, etc.). At the time, my interest in computers was minimal, at best, and my work with them was limited to writing a paper for a class.
When I first interviewed for a teaching position in 1995, I was told that there was a surplus of English teachers and was, instead, offered a position as an ESOL/computer teacher. Although I was apprehensive, I accepted the position. I spent that first year learning as much as I could about computers, always staying a class or two ahead of my students. I became a self-taught computer teacher.
Today, I teach both elementary and middle school computers. I love what I do and can't imagine teaching anything else at this point. For the time being, I intend on remaining a computer teacher and applying what I have learned in the Ed Tech program in my classes. In the future, however, I would like to pursue a career as a curriculum and technology specialist.
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2 comments:
Do you think computer classes should be separate from content area classes? Shouldn't our content specialists know what you know? If so, what would your job be? (I have an idea but I am curious what you think!)
I'm pretty sure Dr. Sessums is implying that content teachers should be implementing what you do in your computer classes in their classes and I defintely agree with that. BUT...I know I rely on the computer teacher to teach my students HOW to do the applications. That way when they get to me, I don't have to waste content time doing so. I know when one of our teachers had laptops for every child they did so many neat activities like podcasts, blogs, etc. The problem, however, was that so much time was spent with learning how to do these things...there wasn't enough time to teach the content. Test scores went down, computers went byebye! So I defintely still see a need for computer application teachers!!!
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