1. Introduction
Hello, my name is Carmen
Conley, and I have been in the
metro Atlanta area of Georgia
for 14 years. I moved to the
Atlanta area in June of 1998,
after my first year of teaching in
Michigan. I was born and raised
in Detroit, Michigan and
attended college in little small
college towns in MI. I received
my bachelor’s degree from
Western Michigan University in
Kalamazoo, MI and my teacher
certification from Eastern
Michigan University in Ypsilanti,
MI (which is side-by-side to Ann
Arbor where the popular
University of Michigan
Wolverines are located).

2. Move to Atlanta, Georgia
 I met my husband in Atlanta back in 1996 and
well, needless to say I moved on down two
years later, got married, and celebrate my
14th wedding anniversary today! After 2 years
of long distance dating, completing my
student teaching and first year of teaching , I
decided to continue with my teaching when I
moved to Atlanta, but moved down to the
middle school level as opposed to the high
school level in which I was accustomed to
back at home in Michigan.

3. Professional/Academic
Background
 As I continued to teach the middle school grade level
(7-8), I decided I wanted something more. I had been
married for a year (in the year 2000) and had not had
any children yet (I was waiting to hit age 30)! So I went
on to pursue a Master’s of Arts in Education in
Curriculum and Instruction in 2001 through a 15-month
program at Central Michigan University (Atlanta
Emerson Center). I was seven months pregnant when I
graduated in November of 2001. I thought long and hard
over my maternity leave if I really wanted to go back to
teaching at the middle school level and commuting
approximately 45-50 minutes everyday! Well, the
answer was no! So, I went back to teaching that fall of
2002(my son was six months old then…not too paranoid
about daycare as opposed to having a 6 week old) at
the high school level (9-12) in Business Education which
is much more beneficial in high school than it is at the
middle school level.

4. Professional/Academic
Background
 I currently teach entry-level and advanced-
level computer technology courses and am
department chair of my Career Technical &
Agricultural Education(CTAE)
department. Being department chair has
opened so many doors for me as a leader,
that I wanted to take the experience that I
am gaining a step further to the
administrative level…so I further pursued
another Master’s in Education, in
Administration and Supervision in 2001 from
University of Phoenix online.

5. Professional/Academic
Background
 My role as department chair has shifted a little more in the
direction of an instructional leader, coach, and mentor as
opposed to the manager and supervisor that I predominantly
served as. With that being said, I have begun an interest in
working with teachers implementing a plethora of technology
strategies with their students and not having direct instruction
with my own students confined to the everyday routine of a
classroom teacher, but more like a technology coach and/or
technology integration specialist. So here I am in my second
year after taking a break summer quarter trying to finish up my
Ed.S in Educational Technology this year while balancing a
plethora of activities including but not limited to full time work
and motherhood for my 11 year son who just began middle
school and daughter who just recently began pre-school!