First Class

Nope, we're not traveling anywhere (at least, not that I'm aware of).  Today is the first day of the spring semester at Boise State University.  And that also means that today is the first day of my first class of a Master's degree.  Let me give you a little explanation.

Depending on how long you've known me, you may know that my Bachelor's degree is in English Literature.  I earned it in 2000.  Yes...it is scary to me to realize that I graduated from college almost 11 years ago.  Where the heck has the time gone?!  Certainly, I'm not that old.  Right?

You also may know that I did begin working on a Master's degree back in 2005.  I completed more than half of my coursework for a Master of Curriculum and Instruction in English Education (there's a mouthful!) through the University of Colorado at Denver.  However, I wasn't finished when we decided to move to Washington, and the remaining classes that I needed to take weren't available online.  I could've found a similar program at a local university, but only 9 credits would've transferred.  And frankly...I wasn't sure that this was really the Master's degree I wanted to earn.  There really wouldn't be anything "new" that I could do with this degree; it would simply help me to continue to teach English.

So since we've moved here, I've toyed a bit with the idea of taking more classes, but I wasn't sure what type of program I would want to do.  I consider myself very lucky to be teaching online, since I think that online education is going to continue to grow by leaps and bounds over the next decade.  I feel like I've gotten in on the ground level...or maybe on the first floor.  I started to look around for Master's programs that would be beneficial to me in this job and that would possibly help me to explore different aspects of online education.

With that in mind, I decided on the Master of Educational Technology degree through Boise State University.  One thing that I like about this degree is that three of my required classes will be enough to earn me a Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching, which will be a resume-booster on its own.  It's also nice that the entire program will be completed online.  Oh, and for the first time ever, I'm "attending" a school whose football games are occasionally shown on national TV!  (Heck, it's the first time I've attended a school with a football team, period!)  Go Broncos!

So...wish me luck as I begin working on "The Internet for Educators."  :)