My professional goal is to provide as much guidance, instruction and encouragement for my students as possible. As with any goal, this mission can be sub-divided.

Guidance: This can encompass anything from being a role model to pointing the way to a new student's locker. And, oddly, in education either can be equally important. I don't intend to be the model teacher of old who was lowered into the classroom every morning on angel wings and ascended to the heavens with the last bell, not to be seen until the following morning. I don't have all the answers (in technology, even if you do have all the answers, they change tomorrow!), and I want my students to see me approach things in a logical manner and work through them. If it's how to troubleshoot a certain software problem, or how to deal with administrative procedures, or how to deal with others, children need role models and advice. They also need to see adults learn from children -- and believe me, in technology, I can always learn from kids!

Instruction: As alluded to above, the "nuts and bolts" of how to do something in technology are constantly changing. Instruction, therefore, has to focus on generalities rather than honing in on how to perform a certain operation, manipulate certain software, or even use a certain operating system. Instruction must include those things, but students must learn how to "freelance," or use what they know in situations they are unfamiliar with -- the same principle life operates upon.

Encouragement: The student who doesn't have a computer at home can be encouraged to stretch their horizons through the school computers. The student who does have a computer at home can be encouraged to learn to use it to the fullest. The student who intends to go to college can be encouraged to choose wisely through the Internet, and be encouraged to arrive at the college of their choice on a level playing field with those from a bigger school or higher socio-economic status. The student who aspires to be a mechanic or a farmer, or a plumber or a carpenter can be encouraged to learn about those fields and how computers are used therein.

On a personal level, I feel we live in the most interesting of times, with the speed of change ever increasing. I love change! I may carp about the fact that, "Just as I seem to get something down, they go and change it," but the excitement of always learning something new keeps me on my toes. If I ever feel, as a teacher, that I know it all . . . the excitement of teaching kids would still be there, but the excitement of learning something new myself would be gone. I'd lose half of the fun in teaching, and I don't want that to ever happen.