PhD Portfolio

Professional Experiences

Opportunities As an English Teacher

I have always used available instructional technology, collaborated with other teachers, and taught some gifted students, but not until the fall of 2003 did I face a daily need to connect myself through technology to gifted students and colleagues who were physically separated from me. The first thing I did was to establish websites for my classes. Regardless of their location, students and parents could check notes, assignments, tests, and materials. Since these students had to complete a year-long research project, an important part of each website was the research component, which offered resources on everything from Boolean logic to finding the sponsors of a webite to accessing the Virginia State Library's subscription databases. I set up blogs so students could share work and collaborate. I couldn't wean my English colleages completely from the notion that a lecture/broadcast was the best way to cram AP preparation into students' heads, but I did manage to infuse art and music into the lessons I was responsible for, such as this one on Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, and things like word banks for highly technical information and constructing activities to make broadcasts more interactive. Everything I learned at GMU went right into my instruction.

Professional Opportunities

State Team Member for National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) Reviews of Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University

When I was named Virginia's Teacher of the Year 2000, I got a lot of extra work as well as wonderful opportunities. Overnight, I became the unpaid webmaster and reviewer for lesson plans submitted to the Commonwealth of Knowledge by teachers from all over the state. (I did get a pen with Roxanne Gilmore's name on it. :- 0) But I think my application for a stipend to support me in pursuing National Board certification also got sent to the top of the pile at DOE. There may be debate over whether or not the process actually makes better teachers, but I know I grew professionally from examining and reflecting on my practice. I gave speeches and workshops all over the state while teaching full time, but I was also asked to be on the state Advisory Board for Teacher Education and Licensure (ABTEL); this work also helped be to grow beyond the limits of my classroom. I was able to participate in the Teachers of Promise, mentoring students preparing to become teachers. (No, I didn't get the $25,000 Millken money; I was too old even to be eligible!) In 2003, I was trained to become an NCATE reviewer and had opportunities to go on site reviews to ODU and VCU, where I assessed the teacher education programs on standards 1 and 5. In 2003, I was also contacted by PBS about creating a set of lesson plans for a series the were producing on the Medici and the Renaissance. (Look at the bottom; they cut off GMU in the last updating of the site. :-[ ) These professional experiences have meshed perfectly with my coursework. I have used technology in most of them; in all of them I have combined what I know from practice and experience with what I have been learning about curriculum and instruction.

Mentor for Virginia Department of Education Teachers of Promise Institute (James Madison University)

Appointed by Virginia Board of Education to Advisory Board for Teacher Education and Licensure (ABTEL)

Teacher Education Opportunities

Presenter for Dr. Linda Hanrahan’s course, EDCI 669 Advanced Methods of Teaching English in Secondary Schools, on Using Technology as a Teacher of English (George Mason University)

In March 2005 I was invited to discuss using technology with Dr. Hanrahan's GMU secondary English methods class. I was to share the three-hour class with someone discussing the use of film in the English classroom. I was disappointed that the film presenter came down with the flu that afternoon (I had hoped to learn some new tricks), but I was delighted that we would have longer. I put together a CD for the class that I hoped would help the students explore for themselves some of important ways technology should inform their teaching. Putting that CD together made me realize how much more I use technology in every aspect of my teaching than I did before I began my coursework in instructional technology. I also realized that the history and pedagogy behind the some of the techniques was critical but would have to wait.

Instructor for Highly Qualified Language Arts Content Institute Workshop for Special Education Teachers in Region 8 (University of Virginia School of Continuing Education; held at Longwood University)

When I received the invitation to do this, I really didn't have time to prepare, but the lure of deciding what English teachers really need to know in order to be highly qualified was irresistible. (Trying to cram it into 30 hours was another issue.) I was leaving teaching for at least a year to work at GMU, and this provided me with needed closure. It felt right. I'm so glad I did the institute. The preparation was helpful to me, but the actual working with teachers was even better. I had done succesful professional development with teachers before but either as Teacher of the Year or with people I knew. I was terrified, recalling how obnoxious I'd been over the years to people wasting my time in poorly designed professional development. My experience with the SPED teachers led to an epiphany: I really do want to be a teacher educator. Apparently participants found it helpful in their professional lives, too.

Opportunities at GMU

I really can't separate my professional work with TOAT and TOA from my coursework. If you read my course reflections on online mentoring and learning in two specific classes, EDCI 797d: K-12 Virtual Learning and Teaching (Fall 2004) and EDCI 790f: Internship in Online Teaching (Summer 2005), you will see that my experiences as online course designer, online course learner, and online course mentor are inextricably bound together. (Use login = powerguest and password = vhs35 to access the online modules.) What I have learned from these experiences is that learning must be constructivist and based on a community of practice--whether the learner is 5 or 50. An article about TOA that appeared in The Fairfax County Times sums up my feelings abvout the ways we learn and about the potential of online learning with the right support.

My two years of being a sponsor for Instructional Technology in Schools (ITS) exit experiences has given me evidence of what teachers can do with the right support. Teams of teachers in the ITS cohort design, conduct, and evaluate a classroom-based, exploratory action research project on topics like experimenting with technology integration, problem-centered curriculum, testing specialized software applications like music composition programs, implementing a school-wide project to prepare a student technology troubleshooting team, and after school workshops for colleagues. Observing the demonstrations of these K-12 inservice teachers who have spent four semesters thinking about the relationship of technology and the teaching/learning process has shown me their developing expertise and taught me much about what good teacher education should be. My role was listen, interact, question, and provide feedback to the ITS faculty who worked with these students.

I co-authored a paper accepted for the March 2007 Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) 18th International Conference in San Antonio, Texas, about the experiences of teachers who took hybrid courses last summer to learn how to be online mentors for TOA. In my research, I have discovered that most online teachers have no training in developing a learning relationship with students or teaching conceptually in a virtual environment. The survey responses of the teachers who had specialized training and actual experience as online learners themselves makes it abundantly clear that teachers also need constructivst instruction based in a community of practice. Some teacher skills are transferable from the classroom to the virtual environment, but some are not. We must attend to the difference.

My professional experiences at GMU have also taught me a great deal about collaboration--with students, with teachers, with professors, with colleagues. I share an office now with four other women. It's almost frightening how well we work with each other, how together we are much more creative, knowledgeable, and insightful than the sum of our individual capabilities. Being a member of the Student Review Board for the International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership and a reviewer for Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education papers as well as completing activities such as research on gifted education for a concept paper that will be used to attract and identify possible funding sources have given me new opportunities to participate in a scholarly community as has my work evaluating proposals for Northern Virginia Technology Educational Consortium (NOVATECH) instructional technology grants. I have also learned to treasure the idea that research is an essential part of an educator's existence. Research is no longer something that I do because I'm inordinately curious but that steals time from my real work; research is part of my job description. Does it get any better than that--having someone pay me to learn?!

Major: Instructional Technology
Minor: Curriculum & Instruction

Graduate School of Education
George Mason University
4400 University Dr.
Fairfax, VA 22030