My Transformation through the Master’s of Arts in Education Program

     My journey as a graduate student in the Masters of Arts in Education (MAED) program at Michigan State University was an insightful transformation for me as a person. I am truly thankful for the opportunity to continue my education through this incredible program. My passion for learning made my decision to return to Michigan State to pursue my master’s degree an easy one.. I have grown as a learner, developed as a professional, improved as a teacher, and defined my goals for the future. I graduated from Michigan State with an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education in the Spring of 2011, minoring in Mathematics and English. My undergraduate education taught me a great amount about myself as a learner, and gave me the knowledge and experience I needed to begin my career as an educator.

     I began taking graduate courses as part of my student teaching internship in the Fall of 2011. I couldn’t agree more with the college of education rankings when Michigan State is given the number one spot year after year. Although demanding and extremely challenging, the graduate courses I took during my student teaching made my experience everything that it was. I am grateful to have learned from such great leaders in the field of education as I was moving towards beginning my career. Saying that my first year of teaching was challenging, seems to be quite the understatement. Although I felt extremely prepared to teach, I have never felt more underqualified, inexperienced, and unknowledgeable in my lifetime. During the first few months, I was constantly down on myself for not being the best teacher, and for continuing to make mistakes daily. About halfway through my first year, something changed. After one of my evaluations, I realized that I shouldn’t discredit the work that I was doing nor strive to be the perfect teacher. What I needed to do was reflect on my current practice daily, embrace my mistakes as part of the process, and ignite the desire to learn. The greatest teachers are those who have a passion for learning, never stop learning, and share the desire to learn with their students. The greatest teachers use mistakes and challenges to be the best teacher they can be for their students.

     I used the first two years  of my career to focus on creating a strong foundation as an educator. Returning to Michigan State to earn my master’s degree was always a goal that I knew I would one day work hard to achieve. However I wanted to take time to experience teaching before I embarked on this journey. It was during my second year of teaching that I decided it was time to apply. As a middle school math teacher, I chose to narrow my focus to a Master’s of Arts in Education with a specialization in math and science teaching. As I began my graduate education courses, I quickly realized that my teaching experience (although it was little) made a huge impact on what I was able to learn. Reading and reflecting on published work was beneficial during my undergrad, however I was not only able to understand things on a different level but I was also able to apply it immediately into my current practice. The remainder of this synthesis of my journey as a graduate student is guided by the following questions: How have I grown as a learner? How has it developed me as a professional? How has it improved me as a teacher? How has it helped my students? How will I define my goals and move forward as a learner?

     How have I grown as a learner? I have to admit, I was pretty sceptical at the beginning of ED 800 Concepts of Educational Inquiry. As a left-brain individual with a Type A personality, the thought of philosophy had me a bit uncomfortable. Starting at a very young age, I have enjoyed and appreciated learning. I appreciated solving things, such as how the vacuum was put together. I became uncomfortable and frustrated when I couldn’t figure something out, but always enjoyed a challenge. I relished in my undergraduate courses, but it wasn’t until ED 800 that I thought about the process of thinking. For someone that has an easy time putting words together, I was frequently at a loss for words. I spent the first few weeks of the semester reading about the philosophy of education. Reading about the foundation and principles that education was built on shed a whole new light on the process of learning. I was learning about not only how students learn but adults as well, looking at the stages of learning from birth through old age. This knowledge truly helped me to understand how people learn and grow. I have come to recognize that learning is truly a very active process. With anything in my life, whether it be something new or something part of my daily routine, I now strive to understand rather than just do. I was able to understand how I learned, which has helped me to guide my students in understanding how they learn. My focus has shifted from teaching students about math to guiding them to understand mathematics through inquiry and problem solving. I started my first year of teaching doing majority of talking. I have a deep understanding of mathematics and therefore can explain many concepts from different angles. However, this explanation did nothing for my students and actually just deepened my own understanding. This course pushed me past my comfort zone into providing my students with cooperative learning activities where they could investigate, explore, and learn concepts. I have become less of a director and more of a coach along the sidelines.

     How has this program developed me as a professional? I believe the experience as a whole changed the way I see my responsibilities as a teacher. As some people know, a teacher wears many hats on a daily basis. Within any given hour, I can fulfil the role of a parent, a doctor, an advocate, a police officer, a counselor, and a friend, to name a few. My responsibilities go far beyond creating lesson plans and grading papers. A typical week has drowning in things paperwork for IEP (Individual Education Plan) meetings, attending committee meetings, fulfilling requirements for teacher evaluations, and responding to student and parent emails/phone calls. I often catch myself thinking, I wish I could just teach my students. Through my experience in this program, I have been able to redefine myself as a professional. Although the above things are all requirements of my daily work, I have shifted my focus of what my responsibilities should be. This shift has happened due to the professors, graduate assistants, and classmates that I have been in close contact with in each course. I have experienced a true community of learners where education is reflected on, discussed, and analyzed. I have learned so much through sharing my experiences and reading about others experiences. Although I have received great ideas from the fine educators I have met, my gain from this community is so much more. I have developed a leadership role in working to understand other teachers and sharing ways to help them in their practice. Although I want to impact my own students, as a professional I want to influence all students and teachers everywhere. My focus has shifted from only my own classroom to classrooms in my building and different communities. While a part of this community of learners at Michigan State, I have created a very similar community of learners in which I hope to instill the same values.

     How has this program improved me as a teacher? This program has helped me in so many aspects as a teacher. Although I wouldn’t have originally thought TE 831 Teaching Subject Matter with Technology would be the course I would be discussing under this question, it has changed the way I approach my job. Technology has redefined education. The opportunities to learn, experience learning, and demonstrate understanding of learning have increased and become more creative. Students now have the world at their fingertips. My school district is 1-1 with technology. I was ecstatic at this when the bond was passed, and the chromebooks were distributed to my students. The beginning of this process started with lessons on things such as creating folders, editing documents, and creating presentations. Once we were passed this point, I became less comfortable. Although I am able to operate technology, there were so many resources available and I was overwhelmed with how to incorporate it in my classroom. As a student in TE 831, I was pushed far beyond my comfort zone as I had to create things using technologies I had never used before. I couldn’t simply reflect on an article by writing a paper, I had to represent information in a whole new way. Although this was a great amount of work, it was an extremely rewarding process. I learned of several (free) technologies that could make a good lesson great. Through looking at different models, such as TPACK, I learned about how to decide which technology would impact a lesson rather than choosing a technology and trying to make it work within a lesson. I was given opportunities to take a completed lesson and re-purpose it using technology. As a student taking this course, I was often given free range on assignments. Although at first I wanted more direction, this helped me to understand the power in giving students choices and providing them opportunities to explore. As a teacher, I want to continue to re-purpose lessons that I have already completed and I want my students ideas to play a part in it. I don’t want to set any limits on what my students are able to create based solely on what I can do, as I want to guide them to be the best they can be.

     How has it helped my students? There are several ways this program has directly helped my students. One benefit of completing my masters while currently practicing is that I was able to directly apply what I was learning as well as have a different level of understanding based on my experience as a teacher. In most courses I took, there was some assignment or task involved a study with one or more students. These assignments provided me with a structured task of observing, analyzing, and creating some sort of solution (scaffolding tool, motivation plan, etc…). In all of my conclusions, I had data to support an improvement in things such as a deeper understanding of a concept, ability to problem solve independently, increase in motivation, or increase in engagement. During my internship year I took TE 804, Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching. This course had a huge impact on the way I designed lesson and unit plans. Prior to this course I typically designed lessons that gave students an introduction and then provided direct instruction, guided practice, and independent practice. My professor had us participate in what was called Science Talks, where students explored, discussed, and found patterns in concepts before any sort of introduction. Not only did this provide the teacher with an understanding of student prior knowledge, but the students understanding was built on inquiry and investigation rather than simply trying to memorize information given by the teacher. In CEP 802 I spent a semester looking at motivation to learn. I critically analyzed intrinsic and extrinsic rewards as well as researched what it takes to help student find a passion for learning. This course gave me insight into ways to help my students as well as help their parents understand.

     How will I move forward? I am so grateful that ED 870 is my final course in the Master’s of Arts in Education Program. I am glad I was provided the opportunity to reflect on this 7 semester journey. Prior to this course, I was focusing on each class independently. Although I felt as if I was learning and taking something away from each one, the demands of my full time job didn’t allow me much time to think about the impact this entire program has had on me. Not only was I able to recognize how much I had learned, but the tasks in this course has taught me how to reflect and summarize an experience and move forward. I have a passion for learning, and will continue to learn and grow to be the best teacher I can be.