Synthesis Essay
How my Master's Program Changed Me as an Educator
As an educator, I have a love of learning, working with children, and constantly improving on my craft through reflection and furthered education. I decided I wanted to be a teacher when I was in fourth grade. I had a teacher that year who made me feel seen and ever since, I have worked to become the best educator I can be so I can be that teacher for my students. I strive to set high expectations for myself and my students, create a classroom that feels like a home away from home, and a place where my students feel safe and seen. I received my undergraduate degree from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Education. After finishing my undergraduate program, I started my master’s program while simultaneously working on my fifth-year internship placement. After finishing my internship and my four master’s classes, I went on and started my teaching career. I waited a few years before deciding to finish my Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET). I wanted to gain some experience in different districts before I completed my degree. Initially, when I began my goals were to simply attain my degree and receive a pay raise in my current teaching position. I had no idea how drastically my goals would change as I worked through my courses. Consistently working to improve myself as a teacher is very important to me so my time working through the MAET courses was a very impactful experience.
One course that really made me start to get excited about what I was learning is CEP 841 Classroom and Behavior Management in the Inclusive Classroom. This course was about classroom management and creating an inclusive classroom. While this course did not focus on technology, it still had a major impact on my day-to-day teaching. This was something I have been interested in since deciding to finish my master’s degree. General education teachers have little to no direct instruction on how to best work with students who have disabilities. While we can use our previous experience, every child is different. I wanted to learn more about how to make sure my students all felt always included in my classroom. During this class we used texts like Teaching Behavior: Managing Classrooms Through Effective Instruction by Terrance M. Scott and Authentic Classroom Management Creating a Learning Community and Building Reflective Practice by Barbara Larrivee. This course taught me great classroom management strategies like ways to call names, how to provide scaffolding, how to work best with students who come from trauma, and ways to make sure students feel like they have choice in your classroom. These skills were easy to try in my own classroom. Even more, we learned about task clarity, reinforcement, scaffolding, opportunities to respond, managing transitions, task difficulty, and positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS). Not only did I attain these skills, but I also practiced reflecting on the skills I already had and how some of these new or refined skills have impacted learning in my classroom.
When I took this course, I was starting in a new district right at the peak of coronavirus, so it was tricky to use these strategies right as I was learning them. However, I did join my school’s PBIS team and was able to change the way the school implemented PBIS practices. I used skills taught in this course such as ways to reward positive behavior, using class dojo to support behavior and removing clip charts from classrooms that make students feel inadequate. This past year I had less restrictions and was able to use what I learned in this course. For example, utilizing wait time when I asked my students questions and giving them different ways and opportunities to respond rather than calling on the first hand that was raised. I also had a lot of practice scaffolding for some of my lower achieving students who needed extra support. My biggest takeaway from this class is that even though I have a lot of skills and strategies in this area of teaching, there is always space to learn more and try new things as our students all benefit from and need different things.
“You don’t have to be a powerful person to ask powerful questions.” (Berger, 2016, 18) This is a quote from the book A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger. I read this book in CEP 812, Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice. This was another course that changed me as an educator. This course taught me about attacking problems in education while also questioning everything. Questioning was an interesting topic to learn about because some questions in education I never thought to ask because it was just how things were. Wrong! Asking questions is a core piece to growing as an educator and as a human being. This quote made me really think about my role as a teacher. I realized that I did not have to be a person in power to ask big questions.
During this course I explored controversial issues in education, and I was able to pick one wicked problem and try to find a solution. My wicked problem that I asked was how can I best assist my higher level students to keep them challenged and engaged in learning? This question was controversial because typically as teachers, we work to get our lowest students up to where they need to be in order for them to be and feel successful but what about everyone else? While I absolutely have my lowest students in mind, it is important to me that my higher students are still being challenged and engaged in learning. I was curious what my colleagues were doing to achieve this or if they were doing anything at all. I surveyed my peers and received interesting results. I found that every teacher I surveyed was doing something for their higher students. I found that some were doing far more than others. I also found that by surveying my peers, I learned some new ways to engage my higher-level thinkers but also was able to collaborate with my peers who were doing less and help them by giving ideas on ways to keep working with their lower students while pushing their higher students as well.
CEP 815, Technology and Leadership was arguably the most impactful MAET course I took throughout my master’s journey. This course in and of itself changed my goals and my why for finishing my master's degree. During this course we explored types of leaders, we dove into scenarios that could take place in a learning environment involving technology, we created a vision statement, explored the type of leaders we see ourselves being, and were able to use our knowledge to create a professional development around technology in the classroom. This course pushed me because I have never thought of myself as a leader. I always felt that since I am newer to education that my opinions do not matter, and my lack of experience exempts me from participating in big conversations in education. I proved to myself in this course that those statements could not be further from the truth. I learned that I have the ability to drive change in education especially when it comes to technology. I also learned that I am fully capable of leading regardless of my age or experience. The course emphasized that as a technology leader, I must first establish the learning goals then find ways to supplement technology. There should always be a focus on improving educational practices and making sure the teachers implementing that change feel supported.
While taking this course there were two assignments that really pushed me to think like a leader in technology. One was creating a vision statement that would help a district make positive changes toward technology integration. My vision addressed technology integration into classrooms, ways to bring in effective professional development around the coming technology, benefits, and ways to keep a positive learning environment for the teachers who would be learning this new technology. Another assignment that pushed me to think like a leader was my leading with technology professional development. Professional development around technology needs to be done in stages with hands on experience for the teachers. It also needs to be delivered more than once. A one-time PD is not going to have any impact on teachers. It needs to be something that they can have more than one experience with as well as time to ask questions and collaborate with peers. I created this PD because I had experience with my current district where they provided an entire day of professional development to learning about Lumio, expected teachers to use it but never provided any other time to learn or any other professional development time to learning more about it. This course gave me the opportunity to use what I know to develop something I can share with others to help them learn. That right there is part of being a leader. CEP 815 gave me the skills to now take steps to move into a role in educational technology. This course made me realize what I want to do with my future in education and I am very grateful.
I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with some amazing teachers as I ventured through the MAET program at Michigan State University. Understanding how to create a more inclusive classroom, gaining the skills to ask big questions whether I am a person in power or not, and embracing my newly developed skills as a leader in technology is something that I have and will continue to apply to my daily life as an educator. Throughout each one of my classes I had the chance to work with my peers online, generate ideas, collaborate, and receive feedback from my professors, as well as revise and share my work. I had opportunities to reflect and ask questions, as well as use what I was learning in my own classroom. This alone is indispensable.
At the start of my synthesis essay, I mentioned my goals before starting the MAET program. All I wanted to do was finish my degree and attain a pay raise in my current district. After navigating this program my goals have completely shifted. Now, my goals are to continue to apply my knowledge to my daily practice, effectively and equitably use technology daily in the classroom, and to move out of the classroom and take a position as an educational technology coach in an elementary school setting. These courses are helping me to continue to grow as an educator and to be that teacher that I once had for my students each year. I will never forget the work I put into this program and will always continue to strive to learn more.
References
Berger, W. (2016). A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. Bloomsbury USA.
Larrivee, B. (2009). Authentic Classroom Management: Creating a Learning Community and Building Reflective Practice. Pearson.
Scott, T. M. (2016). Teaching Behavior: Managing Classrooms Through Effective Instruction. SAGE Publications.