The Teacher:
Teaching is an occupation that has defined me. When I am introduced to new people it is always as, “Meet my friend Darren, he’s a teacher.” I love it because education does define me. It is through education that I feel I am supporting my community and making a difference in the world. Strangely enough, I became a teacher by chance. I studied marketing for my undergraduate degree and fully expected to pursue a career in market research but before I made any career decisions, I decided to travel. I was traveling in China when I was offered a job teaching conversational English at a Chinese university. It seemed like a great opportunity to extend my travels and to learn more about China and its culture. While traveling I had begun to develop theories about Chinese consumer markets and had been hatching market research plans. The opportunity to teach at a university seemed like an amazing place to gain insight into the mind of the Chinese consumer.
I soon found that there were plenty of teaching opportunities to be had in China and I took as many as I could. I reasoned that a variety of interactions would lead to a variety of market insights. After teaching a wide range of ages over a three year period I discovered that these interactions were important not because I gained new insights into the Chinese consumer but because I was supporting these individuals in the pursuit of their goals. It seemed I had stumbled onto a career that suited me and I decided to return to Denver to train as an elementary teacher. I enrolled in Stanley British Primary School’s teacher preparation program and, through its partnership with the University of Colorado at Denver, obtained my Masters in Educational Philosophy. From there, I have taught in a variety of schools both public and private, and every age group in the elementary education. I even had the opportunity to teach abroad again, spending two years in Ecuador in a small international school in Quito. Now I have focused my attention on reaching learners through learning technologies and am particularly interested in how social media can be harnessed to reach learners and extend or enhance learning experiences. I enrolled in UC Denver's Information and Learning Technology program to expand my educational horizons and to find opportunities to contribute to education outside of the traditional classroom, opportunities where education is driven by the passions or needs of the learner, regardless of age or setting. |