Fall 2013

Professor: Michael Weiss, Ph.D.

This course focused on a deeper level of understanding mathematical practices and conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas. It offered methods, activities, and content that help teachers develop learners that make connections between mathematical concepts. In this class I also learned how to differentiate lessons for leveled learners, assess and evaluate understanding of concepts, and the development of lessons. It was through this class that I developed and applied a flipped classroom with my 7th grade advanced math class.

Spring 2014

Professor: Steven Weiland, Ph.D.

This class was focused around four main ideas of educational inquiry including, classroom-based or teacher research, ethnographic participant observation and personal narrative, history and biography, and psychological theory in relation to the curriculum. In this class, I had the opportunity to learn about the history of reform and its evolution within education, approaches to teaching, and how globalization influences education. The most poignant idea from the course was exploring the advancements of best practices by philosopher, John Dewey. Dewey held his teachers to high standards in that they would provide students with active and engaging lessons that would create experiences of learning for each student. His ideas of learning through experiences have resonated with me and influenced my teaching greatly.

Fall 2014

Professor: William Arnold

The focus of this course is learning how to lead within the context of an organization, such as a school, college, or university. The course encompasses learning how to develop the organization as a business. For example, policies, procedures, and structures. It also explores ideas of incorporating personal beliefs and ethics into the decision making process as a leader. The class taught me how to begin building the overall school culture and the roles and tasks within that structure.

Spring 2015

Professor: Brendan Cantwell

This course highlighted the budget and finance fundamentals within higher education, including private and public sectors. More specifically, it encompassed internal resource allocation, external funding, and the principles and values surrounding the distribution of funds. The highlight of this course was restructuring a struggling college to increase enrollment without increasing tuition rates, while still maintaining high SAT scores. Through this I learned the complexity of higher education systems and their need to find balance between the variables of tuition rates and enrollment.

Fall 2015

Professor: Melissa Usiak, Ph.D.

One of my personal favorite courses, this class focused on developing teachers and staff into life-long learners by providing an environment that is rich with learning and support. The way to betterment is through learning and professional development. Through my projects building and facilitating Professional Learning Communities (PLC), I learned that teachers need time, structure, and guidance in order to achieve set goals. This course well prepared me for organizing and supervising professional learning communities within a school.

Spring 2016

Professor: Rick Atkinson

This course prepared me for the legal responsibilities associated with running school athletic programs. The practical application of assignments and problem-based approach made learning first-hand. The importance of injury prevention is undeniably critical for athletic directors to understand and implement within their programs. Negligence, sexual harassment, and product liability are just a few of the issues that athletic directors should fully understand upon fulfilling a position.

Summer 2016

Professor: Scott Riewald

This course focuses on the principles of anatomy and biomedical within sports medicine, anatomical regions of the body and how the effect movement, and the physiological demands of various sports. Learning about the anatomical and medical bases of coaching athletes was extremely useful in this course. With that knowledge, I was able to create a band exercise routine to reduce ankle injury for my volleyball athletes. This information is critical for coaches to understand in order to prevent injury and help athletes reach their highest potential.

Fall 2016

Professor: Andy Driska, Ph.D.

This course focused on many topics from creating a coaching philosophy, to issues associated with coaching, to the issues that society is forcing on our sports and its athletes. Diving deep into moral and ethical bases of coaching and what grounds us as a leader is the idea that this class was always going back to. While observing a volleyball coach at a local high school, I was able to learn the importance of effective communication and how observation can help bridge that gap. In addition to communication during practices, individual communication and goal setting with athletes is absolutely critical to their individual ownership of success and failure.

Spring 2017

Professor: Steven Weiland, Ph.D.

This class taught about the different perspectives and ideologies of the learning society, both past and present. The focus of this course was to learn how different societies view the concept of learning within their historical, social, economic, and cultural domains. In addition, the views of individuals who have experienced the learning society first-hand and the changes that society puts on the learning society, particularly the changes of technology.

Fall 2017

Professors: Matthew Koehler, Ph.D., Spencer Greenhalgh, Sarah Keenan-Lechel, and Brittany Dillman

The purpose of this course was to recap and recount all of the learning experiences throughout the Master of Arts in Education program. It challenged students to create a series of goals essays that reflect upon where they started compared to their current goals exiting the program. This course also required that students build a web portfolio that displays all of their accomplishments throughout the program. Within the portfolio, the viewer can find the students resume and employment information, professional accomplishments, graduate accomplishments, and more information about the individual.