Alicia M. Betz

The Learning Never Ends

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As I assess my current situation as an educator and look to the future, there are three main goals that I see for the future of my practice: improving relationships with students, improving awareness of technology in education, and continuing education. Not only are these important goals that I hold currently, but they are past and future goals as well. These goals are also constantly revolving; I don’t think I will ever fully achieve any of them. As much as I hope to improve in these areas, I will never be fully satisfied with where I’m at, which is what I think is a very important mindset to be successful as an educator. My number one overarching goal is always to improve my relationship with my students, because I believe this is the foundation on which everything else in education is built. My second goal is to improve my knowledge of technology in education- it seems education is leaning more and more toward technology every day, so it’s important for me to keep up with it myself. Finally, as a teacher, I strive to be a lifelong learner, so my third goal is to continue my education with additional advanced degrees and certifications. I have chosen three resources that will help me get started in the stage that I am currently at. They are by no means exhaustive, and I will definitely add more resources as I strive to reach my goals, but they give me a good starting point.
 

Goal #1: Improve Relationships with Students

My teaching philosophy is based on one main belief: that teaching (and life) is all about

relationships. As such, it is a constant goal of mine to improve my relationship with students.

This is a very hard goal to express in words and to measure, but it’s an area of my practice

that I strive to be better in every year. I never know what this looks like from year to year

because it relies on my students and what that group needs in that particular year. Since this is

such an abstract topic, it’s hard to pinpoint a specific resource that helps me learn

and improve in this area. In truth, the biggest resource to help me in this area is my students

themselves. As such, I’ve chosen the blogs of my Honors English 12 students as a resource to

help in this area. On by blog, you'll see links to my students' blogs. Blogs help me get to

know students and their interests, which is especially helpful at the beginning of the school

year when I am just learning who they are and how I can make connections with them.

 

Goal #2: Improve Awareness of Technology in Education

It hasn’t been very long since I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, yet there have been so many advancements in technology since that time. This has shown me how extremely important it is to be a lifelong learner in this area and to continually explore new technologies for my practice. Especially as my students are increasingly adept at using technology, it is important for me to keep up with them. Because this is an ever-growing and changing area, there are constantly varying and changing resources to help me learn and grow. I would love to be able to attend the annual International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference. Some of my colleagues attended this conference last summer and came back with rave reviews- I think this would be a really great opportunity to be exposed to technologies in education that I didn’t even know existed. After all, “you don’t know what you don’t know,” and I think this conference would open my eyes to a whole new world of teaching with technology.

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Goal #3: Continue Education with Advanced Degrees and Certifications

I’m not sure where, what degree, or when, but I do know that I always want to continue my education and

earn advanced degrees. Again, as an educator, it’s important for me to be a lifelong learner. I am strongly considering pursuing a degree that allows me to add more certification areas to my teaching certificate; specifically I am interested in becoming certified as a reading specialist. My background is in teaching English and helping to improve students' literacy, so this is a specialty area of expertise that I am drawn to. My resource for this is the PRAXIS homepage, which is the test Pennsylvania teachers must take to add certifications.