As my time as a student soon comes to an end, I have been inspired to reflect on the five-year long journey I have taken in receiving my Masters of Arts in Education.  My journey began in the fall of 2011 when I was student teaching in Chicago, IL.  Soon after completing my year-long internship, I moved to Naples, FL to teach biology and human anatomy and physiology.  Following my year in Florida, I accepted a position at Fitzgerald High School in Warren, MI teaching chemistry, biology and forensic science.  Once back in Michigan, I decided to continue my education, pursuing a degree through the Higher Adult Lifelong Education (HALE) program.  My goal as a student in this program was to eventually pursue a future career in academic advising.  Unfortunately, after a year in the program I came to the difficult realization that the program was not for me and decided to switch to the Masters of Arts in Education program with a P-12 School and Postsecondary Leadership Concentration.   Although I truly enjoyed the classes I took while in the HALE program, I wanted to continue with a broader degree that would allow me to take classes that would help me to grow as a teacher while still working towards a degree that could some day allow me to find a job at a college or university within advising.  As I reflect, I realize that the one consistency I have had over these past five years is change.  Change has led me to find a job at a wonderful school, led me to the degree program that fits my current and future goals, and has allowed me to broaden my horizons by teaching in multiple different districts.  I have no doubt that change will continue to be instrumental in my future as an educator as it has been over the past five years.

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            Throughout my time as a HALE and MAED student I have taken a number of courses that have greatly impacted my classroom practices.  The content covered in these courses have focused on a wide range of topics from scientific inquiry in secondary classrooms to program planning and evaluation in postsecondary contexts.  Although each of these courses has helped me to grow and improve as an educator, some courses have been more influential in changing my regular pedagogical practices as a high school science teacher.

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            Two of the first classes I took as a graduate student were Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practice I and II.  Both of these courses were hugely influential in helping me to understand how to build a challenging and supportive classroom, as well as, design and implement thought-provoking units, lessons and activities.  I took these two classes while student teaching in a biology classroom at King College Prep in Chicago.  On a daily basis, I was able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the lessons I had planned, reflect upon the progress, and modify accordingly.  In undergrad at Michigan State University (MSU), I had spent a number of hours observing in classrooms, assisting students one-on-one, and teaching short lessons to the class.  My internship year was the first time, however, that I was able to see growth in my students from day-to-day and as a result, make growth as an educator.  It wasn’t until my internship year that I was able to truly understand the importance of getting to know your students’ strengths, weaknesses, interests, and motivations as well as the profound impact this knowledge can make in creating a differentiated learning environment that allows students to thrive.  Due to my regular presence within the classroom, I was also able to implement effective formative assessments, allowing me to track student progress towards mastery and make efficacious improvements to my teaching, which enabled students to be more successful.  Throughout the course, we were prompted to reflect deeply upon the successes and struggles within our classroom and work with our peers to remediate issues as they arose.  This practice has greatly changed the way in which I assess issues within my own classroom today.  I have learned to reflect daily, use formative assessments to drive instruction, and reach out to my fellow teachers when I need further assistance.  As a result, I believe I have become a more effective teacher that is able to modify instruction to better fit the needs of my students.

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            Throughout the courses, I was also able to build unit plans with group members within the class, implement the unit, and discuss our successes as well as our struggles within our individual classrooms.  Despite the fact that we were all at different schools with differing levels of students, we were able to learn from one another and grow together as educators. These activities stressed the importance and the significant benefits that can come from collaboration with fellow teachers, which have helped shape my current collaborative practices.  On a regular basis, I work closely with other teachers within my subject area or grade-level to develop meaningful and effective learning experiences for our students. Within our collaborative teams, we are able to work together to build interdisciplinary lessons and activities that promote success within all academic areas. 

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            The course Technology and Leadership also played a crucial role in my development as an educator.  As a high school and undergraduate student, I frequently shied away from leadership roles.  Over the past few years, however, I have sought out opportunities to grow as a leader at my school.  This class allowed me to explore and understand different leadership styles, respond to various situations using different leadership styles, and work with a partner to create professional development (PD) opportunities for other teachers at my school.  Since completing this course, I have grown as a leader by taking on opportunities to teach various PD sessions and help establish a student ambassador program at my school.  As the Students With A Goal (SWAG) coordinator at my school, I have also incorporated what I have learned about leadership through this course in developing my own mini-lessons on becoming a strong leader.  These lessons are presented to my SWAG students and have helped to shed new light on their current strengths and weaknesses as a leader within the group and at the school.  

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            Additionally, this course taught me about educational technology and how powerful it can be when implemented correctly.  Throughout the course, I was exposed to different concepts, methods and ideas surrounding educational technology.  One model that now influences the way I look at integrating technology within my classroom is the TPACK model. TPACK, or Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, is a framework used for effective integration of technology.  When instructors tap into technological, pedagogical and content knowledge, educational technology becomes most effective in supporting student success. In order to better understand the TPACK model, I created a short 3-minute video on the framework how it can lead to effective implementation of technology.  Learning about the TPACK model has helped me to create lessons and activities that focus on content while still allowing students to grow in their understanding of technology.  

 

            As mentioned earlier, I was also able to partner with one of my fellow classmates to create a professional development for teachers on formative assessment apps and websites. We created a weebly site to allow our hypothetical participants to access information covered in the PD and give feedback through short poll questions posted on the site. Throughout this assignment, I was inspired to explore and implement different tools such as goformative.com, PollEverywhere, Lino, Kahoot and Quizizz in my own classroom.  These formative assessment tools not only allowed me to immediately assess student understanding and recognize misconceptions, but also allowed students to identify strengths and weaknesses in their understanding.   The immediate data delivered from these various forms of technology allowed me to make valuable modifications to instruction to increase student achievement. Learning more about using these formative assessment tools has greatly changed the way in which I assess students on a daily basis, as well as the way in which I use the data from these assessments to inform decisions made within the classroom. 

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            During my time as a HALE student, I took the course Adult Learning.  Despite the fact only a portion of my students are “adults” based on their age, I felt that the knowledge I gained throughout this course helped me to better understand my current students.  Additionally, this course will hopefully prove beneficial in preparing me for a possible future career in academic advising; where I will frequently work and interact with adult learners.  Throughout the course, I was able to complete various assignments that helped me to gain a better appreciation for the cognitive development of adult students, examine how contextual factors affect adult learning, and evaluate my own adult learning process.

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            This course was also one of the few courses I have taken that allowed me to choose how I wanted to demonstrate my understanding of course concepts.  As a student, I was excited by the opportunity to create a PechaKucha, infographic or blog post to explain and apply the knowledge I had gained throughout the learning modules. Throughout this course, I was able to experience first-hand the power of differentiated assessments and the effect they can have on motivating students.  Since this class, I have worked to incorporate more “blank slate” or guided differentiated assessments.  As a teacher, it was difficult for me at first to relinquish the structure and direction that comes from common assessments, but used the experiences I gained through this course to help guide the implementation of these assessments.

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            One of the last courses I took as an MAED student was Capstone Seminar.  This course was like a cherry on top of my beautiful and ever-changing experience as a graduate student.  Throughout this class, I was able to reflect on my work as a teacher and as a student over the past five years while creating an online portfolio that showcased my work and represented me as an educator.  Throughout the course, I was able to gain valuable feedback on my work from both my peers and instructors which helped me to make the necessary adjustments to create a professional online presence that can be shared with current and future students, parents and administrators.

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            One of the first assignments we completed in this course was a Goal Reflection essay.  This assignment allowed me to identify similarities and differences between my past and current goals and see how these objectives have changed over the course of the past five years.  It was exciting to reflect on how far I have come in such a short period of time and determine my current goals as a teacher.  This reflection launched me into creating my Future Goals as a Learner Essay. After taking a deep look at where I have been and where I currently am in my career, I was able to map out my future objectives and how I plan to go about achieving these goals.  With graduation just around the corner, it was important for me to recognize the growth I would like to see in myself and identify the steps I will need to in order to achieve these goals as an independent learner.  

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            The past five years as a graduate student have been exciting, challenging and very rewarding.  The courses I took throughout my program have influenced the way in which I interact with my peers through collaboration, use technology to develop effective instruction, reflect on my own practices, and understand how students learn and interact with new information. I am excited for the future and know that the courses I have taken as a graduate student at MSU will continue to help me to grow and evolve as an effective educator.  

           

           

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