Purpose+Statement

Sharon Walsh SKW07 Purpose Statement June 2008

Picture a virtual classroom: some students are watching videos, some are intrigued with learning games, others are interacting with virtual fieldtrips, and all of them are engaging in dynamic discussions and proving mastery with either quizzes or projects. Between soaring gas prices and a tightening economy, more students are opting for the virtual classroom and the luxury of studying at home. With a master’s degree in Instructional Systems majoring in Open and Distance Learning, I can make this virtual classroom come true for both pre-professional teachers seeking a teaching degree and professional teachers already in the field looking for further development.

I started the program as a special student to see if it was relevant to my current life and ultimate goals. With four courses completed, the relevance is obvious to both my long-term goals and daily life at my current position of reading coach at Wilkinson Junior High. The two courses I took this spring -- “Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology” and “Learning Theories and Cognition” -- contained topics I have already implemented at Wilkinson Junior High. Some of those are:

Professional development courses for teachers are mastery based which allows differentiated learning among the staff. Three reading coaches are collaboration on a knowledge system with searchable reading strategies. I added exiting elements to the professional development such as Gliffy.com to overcome some of the different challenges in learning and motivation of adult learners.

I hold a Bachelor of Science Degree majoring in teaching Social Science. With this degree, I obtained my Florida Professional Educator’s Certificate in Social Science (Grades 6-12). Because I always want to learn more, I took extra college courses and added Mathematics (Grades 5-9) and General Science (Grades 5-9) to my certificate. While teaching junior high science, I realized many of my students could not read on grade level, infringing on their ability to learn. Wanting to help them succeed, I enrolled in the reading endorsement courses offered in our county and added the reading endorsement to my certificate as well. As a reading coach, I use my classroom background along with the reading endorsement to assist teachers creating reading environments in their content area classrooms. A major tool I implemented this spring is an online reading professional development designed just for content area teachers.

A major in Open and Distance Learning benefits Clay County now. However, I am expecting this degree to lead into a doctorate program and to my ultimate goal of working with pre-professional teachers at a state university. The K-12 educational system in Florida is attracting more non-traditional teachers. These teachers have a Bachelor’s Degree majoring in something other than education and choose to enter the classroom as a second career. According to //National Center for Education Information, Washington, D.C., 2005//, the average age for second career teachers is 37 with 32.4 percent between the ages of 30-39. Coincidentally, online courses draw non-traditional students since many are busy professionals and cannot schedule face-to-face courses into their day.

As a busy wife, mother, reading coach, and part-time college student you do not need to look any further to find someone who would benefit from this program. To then become part of the program and help others transition into non-traditional teachers would be very rewarding.

Reference:

Feistritzer, C.E. //Table 4. Age of Alternative Teacher Certification Candidates// retrieved June 27, 2008 from HYPERLINK "http://www.teach-now.org/Table4.pdf" __http://www.teach-now.org/Table4.pdf__