Learning With a Purpose - My Then, Now...

Prior,

In 2022, I graduated from Eastern Michigan University and began working as a long-term substitute in the Utica Community Schools district. At the time, I felt overwhelmed trying to adjust to full-time teaching responsibilities. Despite my parents encouraging me to go straight into graduate school without taking a gap year, I knew I could not handle that transition so quickly. I needed time to adjust to teaching before taking on graduate-level coursework, so I chose not to enroll right away.

The following school year, I was hired as a full-time teacher in Warren Consolidated Schools, where I taught for the entire year. By the end of that year, the conversation about graduate school came up again. At that point, I had taken my gap year, gained classroom experience, and felt more prepared to return to school, even though I was still nervous about balancing both teaching and coursework."

Then,

When I started my master’s MAET program, I had a few clear goals tied directly to what I wanted to get out of the coursework itself. I was not entering the program just to earn a degree. I wanted the classes to give me ideas, tools, and ways of thinking that I could actually use in classrooms and course design. My main goal was to graduate with something tangible that could improve how I teach or how I design learning experiences.

Another goal was to learn new approaches to teaching and learning that went beyond what I had already been exposed to as a classroom teacher. I wanted to understand why certain strategies work, not just how to use them. This included learning about different learning theories, technology integration, and student-centered practices in a way that felt realistic. I wanted ideas that could be adapted and tested in real classrooms with real students when needed.

A third goal was to become more confident completing graduate-level work. When the MAET program began, I felt overwhelmed juggling teaching and coursework at the same time. Early on, I wanted to be able to read course materials, write papers, and complete projects without constantly second-guessing whether I was doing things “right.” My goal was to feel more comfortable figuring out expectations, responding to feedback, and improving my work across courses.

Throughout the program, I did make progress toward these goals. Nearly every course gave me something practical to take away, whether that was a new instructional framework (CEP 814), a way to rethink teaching and online learning (CEP 820), or strategies for making learning more accessible to students (TE-846).

Now,

I found myself actively trying out ideas from class in my own teaching and reflecting on what worked and what needed adjustment. Learning no longer felt separate from practice, just as I had wanted to gain all along.

I also gained new insights exposure to teaching approaches that were not necessarily new to me at the start of the program, but I may have not tried for myself just yet. Some ideas challenged how I had previously thought about instruction, especially around student choice, inquiry, and technology use. Over time, I became more comfortable experimenting with these approaches.

My goals did change slightly as the program continued. At the beginning, I was focused on collecting strategies. As I progressed, my goal became more about understanding when and why to use the things I learn. I became less focused on doing everything “correctly” and more focused on intentional design and reflection. I love the term "iteration" that many of the courses use, I iterate and iterate and iterate until it does not sound like a word anymore.

(If you do not know the term: Iteration is when you try something, see how it goes, tweak it, and then try it again. It’s about learning through repetition and adjustment instead of expecting a first attempt to be flawless.)