I am....

How else would you follow a post entitled, "What have you learned"? Than by asking, "Who are you?".

At ISTE, one of the vendors had t-shirts like the one I am modeling below.

In order to receive the t-shirt you had to complete a sentence on a small white board. The sentence was very similar and simple...."I am a/an  ____________". (If you want to see all the results of the participants you can look here)

I came up with the best, quick answer for the photo in order to receive my free t-shirt. However,  in reality the answer was/is not easy for me at this time in my life.

Yes, I am an educator. I proudly wear the shirt and am proud to say that I teach. Ever since declaring my major in college to education, I have been "in education" (almost 20 years). In those years, I have studied education, student taught, taught my first years and last year in public education; substitute taught, filled in for study hall supervision; studied and received my Masters degree; home-schooled (preschool), mom-ed; became a professor, librarian, technology integrationalist and entered into private education. Not to mention the extras that have come and gone with the jobs (assistant coaching, website support, data collection, course decisions, course development, online teaching, and more).

However, I feel a new dream starting to twinkle.

There have been at least two defining times in my life that I "knew what I wanted to be". The first was in college when I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. After all I had practiced many times as a child teaching my stuffed animals! The second was in my Masters studies and the completion of my Educational Technology Certification. It was at that time that I discovered the joys of 1) technology, 2) teacher training (pre-service and in the classroom teachers). My dream became working at CCC in the teacher education program (just ask my chair how many times I talked to him about it before it became a reality).

Now I am in the wonderful position of saying that I have met my goal and that my dream has become reality. I have had the privilege of working the last five years at the college (four in the education department). 

However, I feel a new dream starting to twinkle.

I still love education/teaching. I still love working in teacher training and technology training. I enjoy being a professor, website suport, librarian, and technology integrationalist. However, I don't enjoy having SO many roles to be a full time employed.

I also am beginning to question ever returning to public education again (only chance might be at the college level or through conferences). We have chosen Christian Education for our girls and I have no desire to change that. It seems strange for me to be in a public school working, while my girls attend private. Yet, this has definitely where my sights have been set for some time.

However, I fell a new dream starting to twinkle.

I just can't put a name on it yet. Or a position title, description, etc.

It is just a twinkle at this time waiting to develop into the next bright shining moment.

So for now....

I am Mrs. Carol Nelson.

Librarian

Instructional Technology

Website Support Person

Professor

Presenter

Mother

Wife

Christian Educator

Dreamer