Home

Goals

Observation

Reflection

Standards I-XI

I, II, III, IV, V,

VII, VIII, IX, X, XI

Standard's Matrix

Site Map

The major components and navigation of my portfolio are presented on the left, at the top under the banner, and at the bottom of the page. The following components comprise my navigation and portfolio framework:

• TATC Portfolio Home - An introduction of myself including my Resume and my technology life history.
• Goals - A brief statement of the goals I have set for myself concerning technology and teaching.
• Observation - A reflective statement concerning my overall thoughts about my Observation experiences.
• Reflection - A reflective statement concerning my thoughts about the overall program of study.
• Standards I-XI - All of the Technology Applications (8-12) Standards and their artifacts are listed on one page with a link provided to each individual standard. Each standard has one or more captioned artifacts linked to it. Note that when you view an artifact representing any standard, a separate window will open for the artifact. When you finish viewing the artifact you can close the window. When visiting outside links within an artifact, it may be necessary to use the back button in your browser to return to the artifact.
  • I, II, III, IV, V, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI - Links to direct access of each individual standard and its captioned artifacts.
• Standard's Matrix - A matrix diagramming the relationship between the TA Standards and each of the associated indicators with my portfolio artifacts.
  

Personal Background

I was born in Irving, Texas. My parents moved to Hillsboro, Texas when I was about two years old, so my memories begin there. We lived in town until I was about 5. We then moved "out in the country" into an old two-story home that was located about two miles outside the city limits.

This old "homestead" was purchased from an elderly spinster who had moved into town because of her need to live closer to a nephew that cared for her. It had been in the family for several generations. I think the original portion of the home had been built in the 1890's. My mom thoroughly loved the history behind the place and tore into making it more livable for a family. It was a great place with beautiful woodwork and 12 foot ceilings in most rooms. Of course, my parents had to put cabinets into the kitchen and rework the bathroom plumbing. It had a wonderful claw foot tub that we splashed about in--I would love to have it now! In the winter we would close off the dining room/living room and live mostly in the bedrooms and kitchen area as the high ceilings and lack of insulation made it kind of drafty. Luckily, Central Texas is pretty moderate in the winter. The house was surrounded by trees that had been planted over the years (including sugar pears, pecans, peaches, and plum trees) and past the trees were farm fields. We had a windmill and several barns, too. Here I enjoyed playing with my younger sister and baby brother who had been born after the move. I have lots of wonderful memories from there.

Much to my mom's horror, my dad decided that any further renovations to the house for electrical updates, insulating, etc. would be too difficult. So when I was about 12, we built a brick home in the field across the way. My mother did manage to get dad to incorporate an antique door and a colored glass window from the old home into our new home. I graduated from Hillsboro High School in 1978, and my mom moved to Waco with the three of us (my parents had divorced when I was a freshman in HS). My younger sister and brother continued their education in Waco, while Mom and I enrolled in Baylor University. She had already completed an Associate Degree at Hill Junior College (now Hill College) where I also took a couple of history classes before our move.

Significant Personal and Technology Events in My Life

Significant events in my life include both good and bad and some that don't easily fit into either category. My parents' divorce was a very difficult time for me, but my being in college at Baylor at the same time as my mom was kind of neat. Not everyone would feel that way, I'm sure. We never had classes together, but I was proud of her. When I look back now, I am in awe of her ability to go back to school at that stage of her life and still raise three children.

When I started Baylor, I knew that I wanted to go into education. I had decided to be a business teacher because I had enjoyed those classes myself and felt that they were definitely relevant for students. My husband, Gary, and I met through mutual friends while I was attending Baylor. He was working as an engineer in McGregor, Texas, having graduated a year earlier from Texas A&M. I graduated in August of 1981 with a Bachelor of Business degree and a secondary teaching certification. As part of my course work I had taken a "computer class" that was required. The class taught FORTRAN programming and our programs were made up of punched cards--no PC's yet at Baylor! Other core classes included Marketing, Finance, Business Law, Business Writing, Accounting, Typing, and Shorthand. During my final summer school session, I was offered a teaching position at LaVega High School in Bellmead (a suburb of Waco). The job description included Cheerleader Sponsor as well as teaching Typing and Shorthand. In mid June, I started to practice with the 18 girls that made up the three cheerleading squads and spent a week at Cheerleading Camp at SMU. Of course, I was still finishing course work myself and planning my wedding. I graduated in August, started inservice three days later, and by special permission, was allowed to leave an hour early on Friday for our rehearsal dinner. We married on Saturday, and I taught for the first time on Monday. Oh my gosh, I don't know how I did it. Thank goodness I was young!

For three years I taught Typing I and II , and Shorthand I and II along with my cheerleader sponsor duties and loved MOSTLY every minute of it. The activities with the cheerleaders were even more eye opening than the classroom teaching, but it was all a definite learning experience that I enjoyed. During my fourth year of teaching, I was expecting our first child and therefore passed the sponsor duties to someone else--the hole in my schedule was filled with a couple of sections of Computer Literacy. I went to work to learn simple BASIC programming through a summer course at McLennan Community College and tried to familiarize myself with the Radio Shack TRS 80 computers that we would use. I think we had four computers for a class of 25 students. It was a very interesting year, especially since my first son, Aaron, was born November 6th. Being away from my little one was tough, and Gary and I decided that if we were really careful with finances, I could be a stay at home mom. My life at home was rewarding; and four years later, we were blessed with a daughter, Lora. Having two children was so much fun that we decided to add another; and so my youngest, David, was born about three and a half years later. My mom forgot to warn me that the third child added excitement and activity in an exponential fashion instead of the straight line graph I had dealt with thus far. It has been and still is quite a ride with three! Click here to view an introductory video. You will need Windows Media Player to view the video. I created this intro video during the Extended Video Elective 205-1. Our assignment was to create a video to get to know our online classmates a little better and to practice what we were learning about filming and editing . As you will see, I hadn't become a believer in the tripod yet when I filmed this. I now know more about file compression, too, but I still need lots of practice.

Reasons for Wanting to be a Technology Applications Teacher

I have always loved learning, and I had several teachers along the way who helped to further my love of learning. They planted the seed of the idea that teaching might be the right career for me, so I felt quite sure of my decision to become a teacher. I was slightly less sure of the age of student I wanted to teach, but my love for the business subjects in high school led me to choose the secondary route. I knew that these courses had such relevance for students and that I wanted to help others to love learning about these things, too. The four years that I taught at LaVega were great; but when family called, my hiatus stretched out much longer than I had originally thought it would.

I got back into teaching rather slowly with some substituting and then work as an aide (nothing was available nearby in the Business field, it seems teachers get hired and stay on for quite a while.) Since I had always had an interest in younger students, too, I decided to try the ExCet test for Elementary Comprehensive. Studying on my own, I took and passed the ExCet and began to put out feelers for a teaching job here. I was hired in 2002 at Robinson Intermediate School as the Music teacher for fourth and fifth grades--more learning has been involved as I try to "teach outside my field"--but I'm enjoying it! The knowledge that I must update myself if I want to teach technology subjects is what has driven me to the TATC program. I was looking for something to "teach me" what is being taught now, so I decided to do this on my own in order to feel confident that I can teach technology if the opportunity presents itself. Although TATC is geared for the high school technology applications courses, I can see that these skills would transfer in many ways to enhance the teaching of younger students as well.

Preparing to Teach

I really don't have to dig too deeply to imagine myself as a first year teacher. Since I am returning to teaching after quite a break and teaching younger students in a class that I am not familiar with, I feel like a first year teacher again. Every day is a new day! What I do hope to be able to do this year is to encourage some of my students to be lifetime learners and to love the process of learning.