Being a teacher has been a long-term goal of mine.  Ever since middle school, I have wanted to be a teacher of a history course.  Once I graduated high school, I already had the thought in my mind that after I finished my undergraduate degree at Michigan State University that I would continue my education by going on to get my master’s degree and possibly a doctorate’s degree.  I knew that your education as a teacher is never finished and that a master’s degree would help me improve my abilities as a teacher.   Unfortunately, after I finished my undergraduate degree and internship I was not able to find a job, which delayed my education.  However, I never lost my drive to continue my education and once I found a position, I made the decision to go back to school and pursue a master’s degree.  I was nervous about working as a teacher full-time and being a graduate student, but I was ready to take on the extra workload needed to improve my education and become a better teacher.

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In the summer of 2015, I set out to gain entrance into a master’s program.  For me it was an easy choice to choose MSU and its online Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program.   This was for a few reasons.  First, I could finish my master’s degree program more quickly than in other programs due to the credits I had already earned due to my internship that I completed through MSU.  Second, MSU’s online program was more extensive than other programs that I was considering, which offered me more flexibility in the courses that I could take.  Lastly, I was living in Jackson, Michigan and working in Brooklyn, Michigan, so there was no way I could attend courses  on campus at MSU and the online capability of the program allowed me to achieve my degree without sacrificing even more of my precious time.

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Upon entering the MAED program, I chose the technology and learning concentration for my degree.  I chose this concentration because this was the only concentration that directly fit my teaching context and preferences as an education because I have always been a proponent of using technology in the classroom to improve my teaching strategies and student learning opportunities.  Furthermore, technology is becoming increasingly important in all aspects of life today, especially in education, as students are becoming more and more adept at using different technologies to help their learning.  As a teacher it is my job to find the best way possible to help my students learn so they can be prepared for their lives after high school and I believe using technology effectively is the best way to do this.  Also, using instructional strategies that take advantage of the use of technology has been a significant focus of my school district.

 

Before I begin talking about the courses that I took in the MAED program and how they affected my thinking and practice, I must briefly talk about the classes that I took during my year-long internship which started me on my path to get a master’s degree.  These courses (TE 801-804), of which I took during the 2011-12 academic year, were instrumental in changing how I viewed myself as a teacher.  Since I was taking these courses along with going through my first true teaching experiences, I was able to get a better understanding of who I was as a teacher and what I wanted to become.  At times, I felt like I was drowning in the classroom, trying to figure out everything that a new teacher needs to understand.  These courses proved helpful because they tasked me with several assignments that required me to assess the lessons that I created and implemented in my classroom.  By assessing my lessons, it allowed me to make adjustments within my practices as I was gaining an understanding of what strategies worked, what did not, and those that just needed to be modified.  Also, the lessons that I had to plan for these courses required me to differentiate my instruction as much as possible.  This was helpful in getting me to try new strategies in my practice, but opened my eyes up more to using technology in the classroom.  This is one of the reasons that when I re-started my master’s program I chose the technology concentration.

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In the summer of 2016, I began my first course as part of the MAED, Electronic Assessment for Teaching and Learning (CEP 813).  I enrolled in this course because I wanted to learn how to use technology more effectively, especially in terms of assessing my students’ learning.  This was because I had just received a chromebook cart and my school was starting to push the use of technology by any means necessary, especially when it came to assessment.  My school was pushing the use of technology in this medium because of the way that standardized testing has gone recently (i.e., M-Step or iReady testing).  This class was very helpful in getting me to reassess how I practiced assessment, by electronic and traditional means.  Since I started this course in the summer (May 2016), I knew that I anything that I learned would not be applied in action until the following school year, so I went into the course with the mindset that I was going to revise my forms of assessment so my classes could make better use of technology.  In this course, I learned how to effectively use web-based tools, such as YouTube, Piktochart, or MineCraft, for either formative or summative assessments.  One of the most beneficial parts of this course for me was the unit of gaming theory.  In this unit, I had to build an assessment simulation using Minecraft.edu.  For this simulation, I created a simulation game of the trading that took place on the ancient Silk Roads.  This simulation I created was a revision of a similar assignment that I assigned to my world history classes.  Although, I do not have the technological capacity in my classroom to have my students undertake this simulation electronically, I learned several ways about how to use this simulation more effectively in a traditional setting.  Furthermore, by practicing gaming theory and how reading about how games can be used in an educational setting, I have been able to make my classes more engaging for my students, which can be very important for a social studies teacher.  Also, CEP 813 introduced me to screencasting, which I have began using extensively in my classroom to flip my classroom and open up more in-class time for skill-based activities.  I have even conducted a teaching session with my colleagues at a district professional development to show them how to use screencasting in their practice.

 

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The next course that has impacted my teaching was Technology, Teaching, and Learning Across Curriculum (CEP 816).  As I have said several times, I really wanted to understand how to use technology more effectively in my teaching practice.  I wanted to do this because I wanted to increase student engagement and motivation in my classroom.  In this class, I discovered a variety of new web-based tools, such as NowComment, Padlet, and EdPuzzle, that I now use in my instruction quite frequently.  These tools have been instrumental in helping transform how I display visual content and/or conduct classroom discussions of media (primary and secondary source documents, photographs, maps, etc.) by allowing my classes to have more in depth discussions, interact with more resources, or conduct the discussions at home which increasing involvement and frees up class time for more skill-based activities.  To finish the course, I was tasked with creating an online unit using a course management system, such as Weebly or Blackboard.  For this assignment, I chose to create a blended unit about World War One for my AP World History students using weebly.com.  By creating this unit, I learned how to effectively implement into my instruction an online unit.  I was even able to use this unit in its entirety this past school year with my students.  This experience allowed my learning in this coures to come full circle and gain an understanding of what tools and activities within the unit were effective or not through student feedback and actual implementation into my practice.  This course was extremely beneficial to my understanding of how to using technology in my classroom as well as what tools to use in my instruction.

           

If I talk about CEP 816 and how impactful it was for my teaching, I have to talk about CEP 820, Teaching Students Online, because of how similar these courses were.  I enrolled in this course because I wanted to learn strategies about how to teach students online more effectively.  Before taking this course, I had dabbled in using online tools, such as weebly.com or Google forms, but I used them very sparingly and did not really like the results of my experiences.  I also choose this class because I thought it would fit well with several other courses I took during the MAED program.  In this course, I learned about how to design activities and lessons so I could effectively teach a course online.  I also learned about the organizational aspects of online learning, such as communications, that make online learning work.  By becoming more comfortable with online learning, I was able to build a very effective online unit for my AP American History students.  This unit was in the same vein as the WWI unit I produced for CEP 816, however I was able to take what I learned from CEP 820 and the experiences of the implementation of the previous unit and design a near perfect online learning experience for my students.  This course has taught me just how effective online can be if it is done right and has started me down the path of wanting to flip my instruction to blended learning.

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This next course, Teaching in Post-Secondary Education (EAD 866), impacted my teaching in a much more different capacity than the courses that I have already discussed.  This course focused on teaching at the college level.  Ever since I was a kid, I have thought about teaching at a college.  I still hope to do so one day and that is why I enrolled in this course.  I also wanted to understand how courses at the post-secondary level are organized, especially if I go on to teach my own course in the future and that is just what I learned in this course.  I learned how to plan a college-level course and consider the many aspects of a college course that are not a part of the secondary teaching experience, such as preparing a full course schedule.  Another thing that this course taught be about was to focus more on my students’ backgrounds and prior knowledge as they come into my class.  Although the course focused on this manner at the college level, it still applies to a secondary setting.  Furthermore, as an AP teacher who is preparing my students to be successful at the college level, this class helped me organize my courses to be closer to the college experience and further my students’ experience with what a college course might ask of them in the near future.

 

As I have reflected on my experiences in the MAED through this capstone course, I have recalled how much I have grown as a teacher since I have entered the program.  For me, this program has been a complete success.  I feel that I am finishing this experience with a greater understanding of what technology I can use in the classroom and how to use it.  I also feel like that I now have the confidence and abilities to fully transform my classes to a blended format, at least my AP courses, which will allow me to present my students with a more modern and engaging learning experience.  As I complete my master’s program, I have reshaped my perspective for my future as a teacher, as I now want to become a facilitator of technology for my colleagues at my school so I share what I learned with learn to continue helping our students with their education and prepare them for their lives after high school.