I became a first year teacher and took on everything that that entails. The workload was tremendous and days were less than ideal. My coursework in the MAED program became more of a chore than anything else. I knew that I did not want to trudge through graduate school in this way, so I needed to simplify my goals. 

My goal became to leave each week of courses with a better insight into how my students learn, or how I can positively impact them. Graduate school is full of complex readings and lengthy assignments. My goal became to complete all of my assignments through the lens of how each was bettering me as an educator. These may not be the most traditional graduate school goals but higher education was never my passion. My passion is teaching so I am unable to discuss my goals for this program without also discussing my goals for my professional career. 

Once I created more tangible goals for my coursework, I was able to find more joy and give more of myself to this program. I feel that I have gained useful pieces of knowledge from every class I took during my time at MSU. That may not sound like the most exciting achievement, but it is what I wanted for myself. My dream of an ideal classroom setting is far from a reality but I remain steadfast in one aspect of my original goal. I strived for simple. Looking for the simple but powerful pieces within my coursework at MSU is what I will be taking away from this program. I found a way to make my complex graduate course feel simple in a way that has created tremendous gains in my life as a student and as an educator.