Autumn Ottenad’s Mission Statement & Guiding Principles
My role as a teacher is to both ready students with the skills and knowledge for a time of hyper-learning and connectedness and engage them to take ownership of their learning. And by hyper-learning, I am referring to the fast-paced educational time we are currently in spurred by the constant churn of information and media. The following mission statement hopes to excite secondary students and educators, as it calls out and addresses crucial areas of need during the secondary years of public education. Educating students for the future is anything but straightforward, and there is increasing demand to be technologically literate.
Teachers must take it upon themselves to “refuse to harden their hearts because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life” (2007, pg 2). Parker Palmer goes on to explain in The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life that teachers must deal with a constant “bashing (which) has become a popular sport. Panic-stricken by the demands of our day, we need scapegoats for the problems we cannot solve and sins we cannot bear” (pg. 3). The belief that teachers have the ability to not only teach new things but continually learn new techniques must be engraved. Educators must learn to guard themselves against the “bashing” by keeping ahead of the curve and simultaneously admit to their critics that they are always learning new things and even if they make a mistake they will not make it again.
While this mission statement is meant to serve as a reflection of who I am as a professional and what I hope to accomplish in the months and years to come. I believe that I can utilize the goals of Seattle Pacific University (SPU) and the Digital Educational Leadership Program to achieve my goals and promote digital readiness for my students and my fellow educators. We as educators and professionals must work together to push ourselves beyond the current status of education into the next century.
Guiding Principles
Secondary Educators will…
Build their own Digital Literacy to Ensure Functioning Students
Not only do I want students to encompass digital readiness and citizenship but I want to integrate technology into other teacher’s practices. The words I have chosen are conscious elements of who I am and what I want to do: model, facilitate, collaborate, explore, and create. Teachers need skills in using the equipment and integrating technology to support learning. I see my role as a facilitator to tie technology closer to curriculum and provide teachers the support they need to change their instruction. I want to collaborate with 
teachers so we can tap into the potential of technology to enhance teaching and learning. As Ribble says in, “Educational Leadership in an Online World: Connecting Students to Technology Responsibly, Safely, and Ethically,” the current gap in technology knowledge and lack of leadership preparation related to digital literacy or the process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology. For school, environments can cause serious problems, as school leaders, parents and broader social communities are currently realizing. The author describes strategies for educational leaders to prepare their stakeholder groups for a digital future, as well as take actions to reduce technology misuse or abuse. “Educational institutions should consider this Digital Citizenship model as a potential new tool for students, faculty, and staff—both onsite and online” (pg.137). (ISTE-C, 4)
Adapt Traditional Views on Education for Digital Needs
Some in education cling to the ideals of the past when it comes to the classroom setting and curriculum of public education. While working with the Digital Educational Leadership program at SPU, I will gain skills to sway those educators that their lives can become easier with a few technological adaptations. Not only will their lives become more comfortable but they will be facilitating their learners in a more direct manner. As Lewis J. Perelman states in his book Schools Out that in this 21st century emerging vision of learning, “hyper-learning is not just speed and scope, but the degree of connectedness, experience, media, and brains” which is challenging the traditional take on educators (1992, pg. 22). Teachers are no longer this all knowing; students are unable to challenge, fear of mistakes ruler, and total controller of their classrooms. Educators instead need to start facilitating students to use the tools that are available to them regarding technology. Be that a laptop at their disposal, personal device, or online tools like Khan Academy and Big History. Not only is the ability to implement digital technologies necessary for the
future of our students, but educators must also embrace the current state of our student’s online use and help them navigate the murky waters surrounding their new online life.
Teachers must begin to understand the multidimensional world of apps and social media that an average adolescent is wading through on their own. Knowing the basics of Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, and YouTube will help open a conversation between student and educator. (ISTE-C 1)
Put Technology in a Broader Educational Context
Additionally, I want to provide support for teachers to work with student information and process data. I want to model, and team-teach to assist teachers as they implement new strategies and create learning resources for educators, staff, and students. Moreover, teachers need to accept the resources that exist at student’s fingertips. We need to move towards a more global understanding of data and research, while still processing 
credibility and reliability. As Rheingold references in Net Smart, Wikipedia as a prime example of this, and says, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” In the end, my goals are to inspire and participate in the development and implementation of a shared vision for the comprehensive integration of technology to promote excellence and support transformational change throughout the instructional environment. (ISTE-C, 2)
Engage Students in Real-Life Activities
Educators need to start understanding that K-12 education should reflect real life more often and allow students to apply what they have learned through the use of the tools they use outside of school. As a digital educational leader, I grasp that we must put real-world tools in the hands of students and allow them to create artifacts of learning that demonstrate conceptual mastery. Real-world application is an important pedagogical shift as it focuses on enhancing essential skill sets—communication, collaboration, creativity, media literacy, global connectedness, critical thinking, and problem-solving. (ISTE-C, 5)
Opportunities for the Future
It is important for leaders to consistently seek out ways to improve existing programs, resources, and professional development. I plan on leveraging connections made through technology and increase opportunities to make improvements across multiple areas of the secondary school culture.(ISTE-C, 6)
References:
Mike Ribble and Teresa Northern Miller, “Educational Leadership in an Online World: Connecting Students to Technology Responsibly, Safely, and Ethically,” Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 17:1 (2013): 137-45
Ribble, Mike. “Nine Elements.” Digitalcitizenship. N.p., 2016. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
Perelman, Lewis J. School’s Out: Hyperlearning, the New Technology, and the End of Education. New York: William Morrow, 1992. Print.
Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life (San Francisco, Calif.: Josey-Bass, 2007), Introduction and chapter 1: “The Heart of a Teacher,”
Rheingold, Net Smart, chapters 4: “Social-Digital Know-How: The Arts and Sciences of Collective Intelligence,” 147-191
Sheninger, E. (2013, December 03). 7 Pillars Of Digital Leadership In Education. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/digital-citizenship-the-future-of-learning/7-pillars-digital-leadership-education/
