Synthesis Essay
Reflection on MAET program
This Master’s in Educational Technology (MAET) program through Michigan State University has stretched and challenged me as an educator. I am so grateful for this program. From my start with graduate level work, the courses I took during my student teaching, to the overseas cohort experience in Galway, Ireland where I was able to take three courses while abroad to this final summer taking courses online - I have learned a great deal. In the journey of this program I have learned to value inquiry (both my own and my students’), become better versed in technological tools and how to leverage them well in the classroom and have a new perspective on feedback, grades and assessment.
Way back during my year-long student teaching internship, where I taught at a high school four days a week and then went to Michigan State’s campus for my graduate classes on Fridays, this program has been refining and enhancing my teacher craft. I am grateful for the ways those classes pushed me. The courses used my experiences of student teaching during the week and built on them. I was asked to think more critically about how I was approaching teaching and classroom management. During my undergrad at Michigan State I had opportunities every semester to engage with real students in nearby schools. I was grateful for that experience as it further cemented my desire to become a teacher.
My student teaching experience with Michigan State University alongside the graduate classes built on those experiences and pushed me further. This was especially true within the discipline of teaching Social Studies. I was grateful for the courses TE 802 & TE 804 Reflections and Inquiry in Teaching I & II that were sectioned out to be just with other student teachers in the same discipline, in my case Secondary Social Studies. Collaborating on problems of practice with other budding educators in the same space was rewarding. We were wonderfully coached and guided by our instructors who together had spent decades as teachers in the classroom.
What stuck with me the most and changed how I approached my practice of teaching Social Studies were the Social Studies enduring understandings that guided our course. From each one I was challenged and encouraged to engage more deeply with. The six enduring understandings were teaching as a learning profession, interdisciplinary teaching, students and teachers are citizens, valuing what students bring and student centered curriculum.
Teaching as a learning profession for me has meant continuing to learn. Being a life-long learner is a significant value of mine. This program has supported me in this processing of continuing to learn and innovate. I have loved especially the learning through collaboration both with coworkers where I teach but especially with my fellow students of the Master’s in Educational Technology program.
Interdisciplinary teaching has been especially significant to me as a teacher as I have woven in between social studies, English as a second language and Spanish among English-speaking and Spanish-speaking students. Bringing them and other disciplines together has really honed my teaching craft.
Valuing what students bring has been a significant core value of mine. I want to genuinely meet students where they are at. This has taken a curiosity and genuine interest in students in order to learn what it that students bring to the classroom and then creative innovation in how to incorporate that genuinely. An idea I have for the coming year is to make a list with students about what they are an expert in and share that among the class. Additionally give space for students to share with the class through a presentation what they are an expert in. I want to validate and give space for all kinds of expertise.
After two years of teaching, I explored continuing with this program and I discovered the overseas cohort program. I was able to travel to Galway, Ireland alongside Michigan State University professors and take three courses while living there for a month. The courses were dynamic and stretching. The comradery among my fellow graduate students was considerable. I loved collaborating with my peers. Some of my favorite work I have done in the program came from this time of collaboration and learning.
Navigating school work while also living cross culturally in Ireland simultaneously was both rewarding and challenging. Balancing learning a whole new culture which included navigating the nuances of public transit and the grocery store with a rigorous course load took trial and error. I was grateful for the generous and flexible instructors who met us where we were at. That’s something, having seen it modeled throughout this program has changed my teaching craft. I too want to meet students where they’re at and be flexible where it is possible in order to do so.
One course that really stuck with me while I was studying in Galway was CEP 810 Teaching for Understanding with Technology. Through reading A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger (2014), course assignments and projects my understanding of the role in inquiry and questioning in the processes of learning and understanding was broadened. I began to speculate how I might engage my students more in the process of questioning to further their learning. In this course, two classmates and I developed a game we could play with students to help strengthen their questioning muscles called the DQ Game. I thoroughly enjoyed putting it to the test in my classroom. It created a safe and fun environment for students to try the process of generating questions about a subject we were studying. I also incorporated a way of encouraging inquiry called the Question Formulation Technique. I loved using it in a new elective I developed this year, Exploring World Cultures. Students using this technique I discovered in this course were able to strengthen their skill of asking questions and articulate their curiosities when it came to the cultures of the world. I also took away from this course a valuing of my own ability to question. I asked and am asking a lot more questions about what I’m teaching, how I’m choosing to teach it and the impact on students. This continues to push me to be a learner within my teaching craft.
Another course from this time in Galway that has impacted me for the better was CEP 811 Adapting Innovative Technologies to Education. It was in this course I was first introduced to the concept of Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPCK). It was validating to see the ways I was already using these knowledges to craft some of the units and lessons in my classroom. I was stretched to consider how to use this lens more often to better my teaching. It was also in this course, through collaboration with instructors and peers in the class, that I became aware of more technological tools. Here is a page of resources I worked with and samples of the work I did with them. I was given space to use them in the course and in doing so became much more well versed in them. What was most helpful though, in light of how technology is always innovating, is that I wasn’t just learning how to use these tools in isolation. I was learning how to use these tools within the framework of TPCK to better understand the role of technology within the classroom. Additionally, I was connected to resources that will continue to inform technological changes and communities to collaborate on how to best leverage them in the learning of our students.
This summer (Summer 2023) I have had the opportunity to conclude my master’s program by taking my last four courses online. The experience the summer before in Ireland gave me greater empathy for those studying and working outside of their home cultural context. The experience this summer studying online has given me greater empathy for those studying and working in between life events and other responsibilities online. I’m grateful for the chance to explore my education in both these routes. Having done this gives me a better sense of how to support students in either of those positions in my classroom.
A course that has changed me for the better as an educator this summer has been CEP 813 Electronic Assessment for Teaching and Learning. I was most struck by how the instructor, Brittany Dillman, modeled the innovative grading, teaching and assessment strategies she was teaching us about. The first part of the course was fascinating learning the history of assessment and the consequences policies have had on our understanding of what assessment can and should be. The second part of the course pushed us to create assessments that were innovative. I was shaped by the ways different approaches were backed by research. An idea from this course I am excited to take into my own practice, that the instructor modeled so well for us, is the idea of leaving comments as a form of assessment feedback instead of a numerical or letter grade. Research even supports leaving comments alone leads to greater learning and reflection than using comments and a grade. This course is changing how I give feedback to students for the better as it will lead to greater depth of learning for my students.
As I consider my experience with this Master’s of Educational Technology on the whole I am encouraged by all the ways I have grown as an educator. I have come a long way from the student teacher new to the craft of teaching to now. This program has helped shape and guide me to be a better and better teacher. Not only year after year in the program have the courses shifted my teaching craft but also it has given me practice and tools to be self-reflective and to ignite my own growth after the conclusion of the program. I am grateful for the shifts I have experience in my thinking towards inquiry and questioning. I have loved experimenting with what I have learned in my courses in my own classroom. I now have firmer grasp on a wider range of technological tools for the classroom and have an excellent framework for how to best leverage that knowledge in the learning of students. I also have courage to consider different ways of evaluating my students that will better support their learning and understanding. It was through this Master’s in Educational Technology I have grown to be the teacher I am today. I am excited for my teaching career ahead where I will continue to apply the frameworks and lens I have gained through this program.
Source:
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. Bloomsbury USA.
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