Shannon Bishop's TATC Portfolio Home

This is my electronic portfolio for the Technology Applications Teacher Certification program (2002-2003). This entire site is a comprised of captioned artifacts which demonstrate the required skills necessary for completing of the program. This site will reveal my major goals, observations, reflections, the process of learning, and a blueprint for achieving my new goals in the future.The major components and navigation of my portfolio are presented on the left 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.
  • 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 / Significant Events / Reasons / Preparing / Resume

Personal Background

I was born in Dallas, TX on May 14, 1968 to Sonny and Linda Nolen. I grew up in an upper middle class area of Arlington, TX with one younger sister, and graduated with 620 others from Lamar High School in 1986. I then left the metroplex area and headed to Abilene Christian University to attend college. What a culture shock! After getting used to the Abilene atmosphere, I settled right in, fell in love with West Texas lifestyle (mainly no traffic!), and have been here ever since. I graduated in 1990 with a BS in Psychology, then went back to school to get my secondary teaching certification in Composite Social Studies. Upon completing my student teaching at Wylie High School here in Abilene, I was informed that I could have a job if I could teach Microcomputer Applications. Okay, I had used a computer at my part-time job, so I thought I'd take a shot at the ExCet for Basic Business. That was 10 years ago, and hear I am, still teaching technology. I also received my Master's in Secondary Education along the way, and I currently teach BCIS and Web Mastering at Wylie High School.

I have ridden horses competively for most of my life, and still enjoy them today. I competed in playdays as a young child, and then moved on to barrel racing exclusively at jackpots, amateur and pro rodeos. I have a horse business on the Internet that I started in 1997. My service is to put buyers and sellers of quality barrel and roping horses together. My website is www.poorforkranch.com. Through the TATC classes, I'm looking to overhauling my current rinky-dink website, which I'm learning breaks every rule in the book!

Definitely, one event that changed my life was the fact that I began teaching computers sort of "off the cuff" and unexpectedly. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I cannot imagine how miserable I would be currently if I was teaching History or Geography! I love teaching computers to students, and I love learning new things myself! I am much better suited to a computer lab environment than a regular core subject classroom environment. My teaching computers is what led me to create my website, Poor Fork Ranch, which gives me great satisfaction, not to mention a part-time income!

I married Britt Bishop on March 9, 1996. We have one daughter, Brittany, who is 5 and is attending Kindergarten this year at Wylie Elementary. She has changed my life tremendously, as all kids do, and like all parents, she is the light of my life.

Reasons for Wanting to be a Technology Applications Teacher

I grew up with teaching in my family. My Dad was a teacher/administrator in the Arlington ISD for over 30 years, and he is my ultimate mentor here on Earth. My Aunt was also a teacher, so I already was familiar with most of the advantages and disadvantages that came with the profession. I also knew that I wanted to raise a child, and I would want to have the same schedule that he or she would have for days off and vacations, etc. because that was always so fun to have my Dad home on the same days we were out of school while growing up.

I fell into the Technology field by accident, but, as stated before, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I am an avid fan of changing technology and current events. I like staying current on events in our society and the field of technology. I am very interested on both a personal and professional level in the fields of digital graphics, web authoring, etc., and I want to be a sponge that can absorb all of this new information and put it to work for me at home and on the job. I feel students today have so much potential and ability to learn quickly the materials in the TA courses. They have so much more of a headstart than most of us had when we started.

Preparing to Teach

I remember the day that I first started teaching at the age of 23. I was standing in front of a room of high school juniors at Wylie High School. I was nervous that I would do something stupid and the class would burst out laughing. I was also scared that they wouldn't take me seriously since I wasn't much older than them, and looked younger than my age. (I wish that was true today!) After the first few minutes of the first class, it was smooth sailing and has been relatively smooth ever since. To think of standing in front of that same group of students now and being nervous seems silly after 10 years of teaching. I'm confident in my abilities as a teacher, but not as confident in my abilities as a learner at this point. The TATC classes will give me confidence to go and teach material to my students that, right now, I don't have adequate knowledge to teach. All of the courses will give me more confidence as we complete each one.