For my graduate Internship class, we have to write a Comprehensive Final Paper. The following is my (current) opening and position statement. Thoughts/comments/revisions/suggestions appreciated!

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” We’re all quite familiar with that question. It starts around the time we hit kindergarten (where every child responds with some sort of service industry like “fireman” or “doctor”) and, as best I can tell, never really ends. From the time I was two years old until I was nineteen, I wanted to work for NASA. Then I learned (in college, where dreams go to die) that I would be truly miserable if I had to spend the next forty years around the type of people in my Engineering Graphics class. Then I decided I wanted to be a youth pastor. That changed to public relations executive, then to financial advisor. Now I’m a teacher. I thought it might be fun. In the process of teaching, I learned that I have been uniquely placed within the space-time continuum with a natural set of gifts and abilities that few others possess. I am of the “digital native” ilk. In fact, I was in middle school when Marc Prensky wrote his 2001 ground-breaking article “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” outlining the ways that today’s students (read: me) are radically different than ever before. I enjoy teaching and have a knack for making complicated things easier to understand. I think holistically and always find ways to teach “long-range,” that is, skills and processes that will empower and prepare my students for success. Individually, of course, these are not unique. Over the next five to ten years, I believe my combination(s) of skills, talents, and abilities will become commonplace. But I am among the first of my generation (the so-called “Net Generation” or “Millennial Generation”) to pick up the banner the “immigrants” have carried this far.

This degree program, then, had less to do with learning the skills and abilities needed for today’s students and more to do with learning to lead today’s teachers. We are, by definition, in different worlds with different brain processes and different ways of looking at the world around us. To this end, it would be naïve of me to believe that I can even attempt to forecast what my “dream job” will be. I recognize my calling to lead in the areas of education and technology, but upon reflection, I realize that my dream job can’t possibly exist: I haven’t created it yet.

Today’s students are in dire need of educators willing to (finally) view technology not as novelty, but necessity. Today’s teachers are in dire need of a confidence boost and permission to fail. They need to hear. “it’s ok that you don’t know because your students do; let them lead.” I stand as the bridge between two worlds, trying to show each how to make sense of the other. As I grow and continue to (try and) understand the “immigrant” thought process, I will continue to help them understand the “native” thought process. Effectually, this is my goal as an educational leader. I realize this cannot be a long-term goal, as the immigrants grow ever-closer to retirement age, but given that my speciality is technology, I’m sure something will change.