More About Fishing
Posted by Pamela Gustafson on December 25th, 2008
In 2001 I went fishing in a small pool of online classes, not knowing at the time what kinds of fish I wanted to catch, but I knew this: I wanted to learn fresh new ideas. I started taking an online class from a technical school, to get a taste of what it would be like to be a network specialist. Teachers are always complaining about computers not working. The first fish I caught was a class to become certified as a Microsoft Administrator. I found out quickly that I didn’t like the taste of this fish! There was little human-to-human interaction in the regimen and it didn’t fit my style. While I was successful in the class, most of my classmates were recent high school grads. It was the wrong pond for me, though it was a good experience and a lot cheaper than taking a university class. I learned that I needed to combine my interest in computers with my first love of helping children grow and develop.
I didn’t really need to do a search or request information. The information came to me in the form of flyers from various universities. The universities know that true educators believe continuing education is imperative and they capitalize on this knowledge by marketing to teachers. The information they voluntary sent was helpful and I took the bait and signed up for classes. Shortly after that, I found another fishing pond — in my very own school district. They offered online classes for all teachers in the district. While the classes were not for credit, they helped me to develop skills to use computers effectively with students.
Currently, I have decided to go deep sea fishing! I am interested in a set of skills that will allow me to be employed as an online elementary or middle school teacher. I’m not interested in a degree. The University of Wisconsin—Stout offers an e-learning certificate that can open doors for online teachers. There’s now an explosion of public schools offering this option for their students. After 34 years of dragging my tired body out of bed and working a 9- to 10-hour day, I long for the day when I can crawl out of bed, limp to my computer in my pajamas (diet pepsi in hand), and correct assignments emailed or posted online. The Ocean of Opportunity available to me can also reach my own students. Let’s hope they go fishing for something valuable, too!
Read more of Pamela Gustafson's blog.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 25th, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Receiving Information from Online Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
