I had three main goals while pursuing my MAED

The Journey

Obtaining a masters degree has been a goal of mine since I started teaching in 2019. Why? So I can be better in all areas of teaching. I'm someone who is obsessed at getting better at everything. Maybe to a fault. I want to always be improving and striving to become a more effective teacher. The trouble is, being a teacher feels like you are constructing a high rise on a budget and you have 9 months to do it. I've learned the importance of time managment, task prioritization, and with this degree I've learned how to teach and manage classrooms effectively. 

This whole journey towards a MAED degree started in 2020 when Covid hit.  At the time, I was teaching a mixed classroom of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students at the Kalispell Montessori Elementary school. We had to finish the year teaching students via zoom, which was more about students maintaining friendships than it was learning. We were also unsure if we would have to teach remote the following year, so naturally it felt like a great time to start chipping away at a masters degree online.  

Goal #1: When I began looking at programs I had one main goal, to learn how to become a highly effective reading teacher. You see, Montessori education is incredible for so many reasons. It revolved around individualized instruction, fostering independence, teaches students how to drive their own learning, and so much more. The main problem with lower elementary Montessori education though is there is no reading curriculum. Which is why I was so passionate about learning how to teach children how to read. It's so incredibly frustrating when you are spending countless hours each week trying to help students learn how to read and they are struggling. I wanted to learn the best, evidence-based methods for teaching reading which is why I enrolled at MSU and not another university. 

Goal #2: Fast forward a few years to 2022 and I moved from KME to a public school (Muldown Elementary). The change couldn't be more drastic. I went from lots of small group instruction (1-3) students at a time to mostly whole class instruction. I had already achieved my goal of learning how to teach students well, and was now highly motivated to learn how to manage a classroom. My first class at Muldown was a very challenging dynamic of kids with several students with defiant, peer-attention seeking behaviors. It didn't take long for a group of boys to turn a lesson upside down. I was shocked to learn how disruptive, inappropriate, and rude 2nd graders could be. I had to learn how to connect with theses students and how to show them the value of learning. This goal led me to taking CEP841: Classro om Management in Inclusive Classrooms. 

Goal #3: As I neared the end of my degree, I felt strong as a literacy teacher and at managing classroom behavior. The area I wanted to grow in next was writing. Having an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a Montessori Teacher Certification, I had very little background on how to teach students to write. Which is why the last class before my capstone I took was TE848: Writing Assessment and Instruction.