Over the course of my completing my Masters of Arts in Education here at Michigan State University, I have seen myself evolve into a different mindset regarding my continuing education. I will be honest going back to get my masters was not something I was excited for. After transferring universities for my undergraduate degree, and student teaching for a year, I had felt like I had already had enough years of schooling to be a doctor. Going back to school sounded expensive, and like another thing to add to an already pretty busy schedule. I went back not because I was excited to learn about leadership but really it was more of a financial move for myself and my family. I knew once I finished I would get a small raise and over time it would pay itself off.

 

I chose to focus on educational leadership not because I wanted to go into administration but I figured it may at least open that door if I chose to in the future. The obvious choice would have been to pursue a degree in special education, where I have experience but I decided that if I was going to go back, I would need to do something different. The other choice I decided to make was that if I was going to go back, I was going to take my time, something I somewhat regret now. I did not want to have to take out a loan to pay and I never really wanted to feel like I had added stress in my life so up until this last semester, I took one course at a time and more or less took it easy during my semesters.

 

In hindsight, I accomplished my goals of never being stressed out, and not having to take out any loans, but I do wish I would of taken a few classes earlier and been done before my daughter was born in May. I titled my paper “The Evolution of Tom,” because I do feel like my graduate program has changed me both personally and professionally. This program has made me reflect on my educational practices, challenge my thinking, and even reflect on my personal experiences that have brought me to where I am now. I have taken so many interesting and helpful courses, some by accident even, that have changed the way I will teach in the future and also I think will help me be a better parent. There has been a shift in my thinking of how I value furthering my education. I never did not value education, I had a double major in my undergraduate studies, grew up with a teacher for a parent, and both my parents have multiple degrees. Education was always valued in our family and it was always expected that all three of us kids would at least complete a bachelor’s degree. However if you would have asked me three years ago if I would be continuing my education after my master’s degree, the answer would have been absolutely not. I have a slightly different view now, and although I am going to take a little break, I do think there is further education in my future. At the very least, I will take online courses to move up another bracket on the pay scale at some cheap university, but I think there will be some more meaningful education in my future as well. I am thankful for this program, and my instructors that have pushed me to challenge my own beliefs, and evolve into a better educator, leader and person.

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One of the classes that was most useful to me was CEP 820: Teaching Students Online with Professor Matthew Schell. I took this class in the spring of 2021 and I really wish I would have taken it a year earlier. Obviously, none of us had any idea that in March of 2020 we would be forced to work from home, teaching online, which for me and many others was a dramatic shift in our teaching experience. At that time I had some experience with Google Classroom and considered myself decent with technology, however I do not strive to be “decent” when it comes to teaching and from March to June that year I think that would be an accurate, maybe even generous, description of my teaching. I used a variety of methods to meet with my students every day. I tried zoom for a while, switched to google meets and then back to zoom. I tried using an easel and writing things out for my students for my students so they could see it however it seemed pretty ineffective. I was teaching a class of about 12 students with moderate to severe cognitive impairments. There were a lot of roadblocks in the way, for the students whose parents were not able to help, just getting on the meeting was difficult. I found that for many of my students, March 2020 may have been the first time they had ever checked their email. I knew moving forward I would have to address this, I had never really dealt with the idea of technology because many of my students, use their phones and computers better than I do, however they had no idea how to use their phone or computer for anything useful or school related. When we shut down in March, for our district it was very unexpected. Nothing was communicated from our administrative team until they came over the intercom and told us we would be closed for two weeks. In that same announcement, they told the students if they were passing their classes now, everything would be fine. That was a mistake as it led many student to believe that they were done three months early. My general education teacher peers had very low numbers for the rest of the year, but not me, almost all of my students showed up, every day, for our two hour session. We were not allowed in the building for the rest of the year, and were given about two hours after the initial announcement to “get everything we need.” Looking back now, I had no idea what I needed or what I would be teaching. The result of that was for three months I taught social skills and led discussions on being respectful and responsible citizens. I provided them with daily challenges and journal prompts, which went largely undone. My students primarily enjoyed getting on the zoom call to see their friends, have a little socialization and have a sense of normalcy in what was probably the weirdest few months in most of our lives.

 

After taking CEP 820, I feel like if we were to have to teach in a remote setting again, I would be much more prepared. The last time I had to do that was in November of 2020 where we shut down for a month and returned after winter break. I was a little more prepared that time, with packets ready for the students that we could work through as a group, but I still had more learning to do. Now I have the skills to really run a fully functioning class online. Professor Schell, knowing I teach a self-contained cognitively impaired classroom challenged me to make my “room” as accessible as it could be, which I really appreciated. I learned how to make my assignments and assessments more meaningful and really had a crash course in using all the different applications on Google Classroom. Although I really wish I would have taken this course sooner, I know that in the future if I need to teach remotely again, I will be much more prepared to serve my students well.

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EAD 822, Educating Diverse Students and Their Families with Dr. Kristy Stein was another great course that I believe should be required for all graduate students to take. I took this course in the fall of 2020, which coincided with the election which made this class a little more real as we were in the middle of a very divisive time in our country. This class was interesting for many reasons. First and foremost, I read a few books that opened my eyes to the racial climate in our country. We read about the making of Black Lives Matter, which provided a history of the movement, which dates back far before it made headlines in the news. We read a book called Race(ing) to Class, which not only offered up ways to educate students of color and students living in poverty but also looked at the history of redlining and how that has shaped education for those communities over the past decades. We were asked to read a memoir of our choice, written by a minority author and reflect on how their experiences were similar or different to our own. Finally we had a very meaningful assignment where we were asked to reflect on our own educational experience and really our upbringing. We had to look at the places we grew up and decide what biases were there that maybe we did not see and how those have shaped our views, or outlooks on our experiences. Over the course of my graduate studies and especially through this class I have learned to become more reflective upon my own experiences and how those have shaped me as a person and an educator.

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Last but not least the Capstone Seminar has been a very helpful course for me. One great thing that came out of this course is it pushed me out of my comfort zone. I will admit, I cringed a little when I saw I had to put together a website as part of my final course. Historically, I have hated all things web design and outside of seventh grade, have never tried to build a website. I do work with google classroom, but that has a much different feel to me. Not only did this class push me to try new things, it also guided me to be more reflective on the work I have done, which is a skill I will deefinitely take with me in my career and life. It was great to put together the Showcase page to highlight some work that I am proud of. I also enjoyed putting together my Annotated Transcript to take a look back at all the courses I have taken.

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My graduate experience has been a transformational experience for me. Not only do I think I will graduate as a better educator, I think this experience has changed the way I think moving forward and will serve me in many ways beyond the classroom. I believe I am more empathetic and understanding, approach decisions with a different mindset and have learned to manage my time much more effectively. I am a deeper thinker and am much more interested in books than I have ever been in my life. I do think that over the course of my program, I have somehow become calmer and definitely more reflective. I take more time before I act and try to approach every decision I make with a positive approach. I am thankful for the classes I have taken, the professors that have pushed me and the experiences I have had during my coursework.      

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