Career+Position+and+Leadership+Goals+Statement

I’d never seriously considered going back to school to get my Master’s until last summer, right after my first trip to Maui, where I discovered that I am really an ‘island girl’ at heart. I did some online research on websites for educators in Hawaii, and ran across a posting for a corporate trainer who would spend one week a month on the mainland and the other three in the islands, conducting employee training sessions. This position required a Masters in Educational Technology, so I quickly started looking at online degree programs. While this would be my ideal position, and it is definitely something I will be looking into in the future, I would like to use my degree to become an Instructional Technology director in a school district until my youngest son graduates from high school in 5 years. Becoming a principal has never been a goal of mine, but from what I understand, it may be a necessary step along the way to becoming a director.
 * CAREER POSITION AND LEADERSHIP GOALS STATEMENT**

When I consider the word ‘leadership’, the first thought that comes to mind is ‘helpful’. In my experience, good leaders have always been, above all else, helpful to others. I have had supervisors who thought they were leaders because they told others what to do. But the ones that truly were leaders were in the trenches with everyone else, helping those who weren’t performing to expectations to do well, and those who are already meeting expectations to do even better. Using the analogy of a battlefield, I much prefer a leader who gets out in front of the troops and shows us what to do over one who whispers directions from the bushes behind us. I’ve worked under both types, and the demonstrator is ultimately more preferable and motivating because they show that they believe that everyone has value. Those are the truly inspiring people, and they aren’t as common in education as one might expect. In my third year of teaching, I was ‘voluntold’ by my principal to be the campus representative on our district technology council. If she’d opened the position up to those who were interested, I probably never would have even considered applying because I didn’t think I possessed the necessary skills. But she believed in me more than I believed in myself. I expressed my concerns the day she told me about the appointment, and the thing I remember most about that conversation was the question she asked me—was I willing to learn? Not wanting to let her down, I stepped up and learned as much as possible so that I could share it with my campus. I held that position for the next 5 years, until I moved up to Instructional Technology Specialist for the district. The campus teachers I worked with still tell me how much they liked the way I helped them learn about technology. The previous position holder didn’t teach them how to do things—she just did whatever they needed help with, which meant that they next time the situation came up, they still didn’t know how to do it. But I walked them through the solution so that they could take care of the problem themselves the next time it came up. This is the same tactic that I used as an Instructional Technology Specialist, where I worked with teachers across our entire district. And I still get the same kind of feedback--teachers appreciate someone who can guide them, not do it for them. I intend to keep on guiding both students and teachers to bettering themselves by learning how to cope with problems as they arise, and not be dependent on someone to fix it for them.