Welcome to Sara Crow's TATC Portfolio | |||||||||||||||
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TATC Portfolio Home - An introduction of myself including my Resume and my technology life history. | ||
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Goals - A brief statement of the goals I have set for myself concerning technology and teaching. | ||
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Observation - A reflective statement concerning my overall thoughts about my Observation experiences. | ||
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Reflection - A reflective statement concerning my thoughts about the overall program of study. | ||
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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.
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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 Topeka, Kansas in 1954. When my father got out of the Air Force, we moved to Texas where he went to work for Merrill Lynch in Ft. Worth. We were immediately sent to New York for his training but I was still so young I don't really remember a lot about it! We returned to Ft Worth in 1959 and I never left again until going to college. We lived in an upper middle class neighborhood where race and religion meant nothing. I never knew what prejudice really was until leaving home. I am the oldest of two. My younger sister was a pain in the neck growing up but I think a lot of that was jealousy on my part. She was cute, bubbly, athletic and had a lot of self-confidence. All I had were the brains.
I attended Paschal High School in Ft. Worth where my favorite math teacher's son is now the web master for his senior class. It is amazing how life goes in circles! I graduated early and went on to Lubbock to Texas Tech University in the fall of 1972. I hated it my first year but then fell in love with the Plains and stayed for 20 years. I had many interesting jobs but only discovered the education field in the past 12 years. I have two wonderful sons, 23 and 20. The youngest is now following in my footsteps and is has just completed his sophomore year at Tech.
My husband is the reason I am now in Baird, Texas (pop. 1500) and working at Clyde. He was born and raised here and wanted to come back to "his roots!" He is the director of the Alternative Education program for Clyde and I am the technology director for Clyde CISD. Needless to say, it has been quite an adjustment from Ft. Worth to Lubbock to Baird but everything works for a reason.
I also have two part-time occupations. I keep the books for a 600-member golf course and sell Longaberger baskets. The basket business is mainly to support my habit. Anyone that has ever been exposed to these baskets, however, knows that the expense is well worth the quality. (Oops, now I sound like a salesperson!)
Significant Personal and Technology Events in My Life
After divorcing my sons' father, I realized that I needed to find something besides sales to provide for them. I was very successful at selling but it took me away from home too much. It was then I decided to go back to school to pursue getting my teaching certificate. I already had my degree but not the right hours to be certified. I had already used a computer some (remember those that didn't even have memory in them?) but soon found that I needed a full blown PC in order to do my school work. That is when I fell in love with computers and technology in general. My new husband encouraged me to continue my education so I went on to get my master's in education and finished the week before my oldest son graduated from high school.
Reasons for Wanting to be a Technology Applications Teacher
Actually, I never knew I wanted to teach technology related subjects, I just knew I wanted to be a part of the technology revolution! When interviewing for a job at Baird ISD the superintendent advised me to wait a year and let him hire me as technology director! I got to teach two classes a day but the rest of the time I got to play (or that is what it felt like, at least.) Since then I have moved on to a 3-A school and I wouldn't call it "playing" but I still enjoy it for the most part. I do carry a screwdriver around a lot, which wasn't in the plans, but it is amazing what you can learn when you tear into one of the machines. I no longer teach any classes other than adult ed for the community but still get a lot of time to interact with the students.
Preparing to Teach
I know when I was preparing to teach I was scared to death. I love high school age students but they have such attitudes today! I wasn't really sure I could deal with that since my boys had always respected me enough to say "yes, ma'm" and "no ma'm." It is no longer a matter of just knowing your subject but also how to deal with attitudes of the students and the parents. A lot of patience is needed!