Noelle Fleszar

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        After going through the Master of Arts in Educational Technology(MAET) program, my goals, although similar to when I originally entered,  now have more depth and definition to them. When I began this journey, my goal was to gain the knowledge necessary that would eventually lead me to becoming a technology consultant for a school. This is still very much a goal of mine, although I would like to spend a few more years in the classroom gaining first hand experience and testing out all that I learned in this course.

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        Another goal of mine was to foster a blended learning environment that helps to create lifelong learners and develop deep critical thinkers. I still hold to these goals as well, but now with more knowledge stored up to make these goals a reality. I currently have a blended learning environment in my classroom, but through the MAET courses, I have learned about tools, designs, and ideas that will help to create a more impactful blended learning environment. It is through this blended learning environment that I will work to not only foster Critical Thinking, but all the 21st century skills including Collaboration, Problem Solving, and Creativity. My goal is to incorporate project-based learning into my curriculum to help students not only develop the 21st century skills, but gain meaningful knowledge that works to impact their world.

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          As I evaluated my goals from the start of the program to now, I recognize that most of them have stayed the same. What I’ve come to realize about myself is that I’m a planner. With this in mind, I feel that I began this journey with an actionable plan. I dabbled in technology before I began this program and attended a few professional developments that sparked my desire to learn all that I can about it in order to transform my classroom and myself as an educator. So, when I began this program, I had a clear picture of what I hoped to learn and what I wanted to do with my new found knowledge. What I discovered though, is that I learned so much more than I could have originally imagined. This program has changed my thinking about almost the entire education system. It put fuel on the flame that ignited my passion for educational technology and the transformative power that it has. My goal is to use all that I have learned to impact my classroom and my school district to create a better education system that works to ignite critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and problem solving in a meaningful way. My goal is to teach students to not only love learning, but crave it and use what they learn to make an impact for a better future.