Goals
A Look Back......
When graduating from Ball State University in 2019 with a degree in education, I would have been surprised to hear that I would ultimately be concentrating in Special Education for my Master of Arts in Education (MAED) and getting a graduate certificate in Educational Psychology. However, once I began my teaching career it became evident to me that I needed to learn more about behavior and how individuals learn.
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In my first few years of teaching I was dealing with unprecedented challenges due to the COVID pandemic. Along with that, in my classes I had students who were expressing major behavior challenges. After talking with many veteran teachers and reflecting on my patience in dealing with many escalating situations, I realized these were going to be behaviors and situations that would not be going away. Our students are growing up in a quickly changing and very technical world that is leading to more mild behavior challenges in the classroom. My first goal when beginning my master’s degree was to explore more interventions and supports that would help me when dealing with the many behavioral challenges.
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I currently work at a Title I school in Michigan and my students all come to me with many different backgrounds, experiences, and strengths. As a general education teacher, I wanted to gain a better understanding of differentiated instruction and teaching students with mild learning disabilities. I wanted and still want to be a classroom teacher that regularly provides differentiated instruction. I believe this will create a classroom environment that will allow all my students to perform highly academically while gaining confidence. As my teaching career took off, I quickly realized my passion for helping students who really struggle or are below grade level. I want to create a love for learning within all of my students and create a space where they feel challenged and motivated to do their best. Overall, my goals when choosing to get my master’s degree was to gain more knowledge in the areas of helping students with behavioral challenges and helping students with mild learning disabilities. It was an easy choice when choosing to concentrate in Special Education and getting the graduate certificate in Educational Psychology.
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When I reflect on these goals that I stated almost 2 years ago, I would have to say that they generally remained the same throughout my time in this program and are currently still unchanged. Despite having learned a lot of content as a student myself, every class of students I get from year to year is different and with that, my goals are some of the most important factors I take into consideration as I get to know my new class. I am still extremely passionate about helping all my students no matter the challenges they may face. I am incredibly grateful for the knowledge that I have gained at Michigan State. Last academic year I had students who were going through many challenges academically and behaviorally. Through the courses I was taking, I was learning about how to best help my students. What I was learning was and is applicable to my career and made an impacting difference. Through my studies and ability to collaborate with others in my courses, I was able to successfully develop multiple individualized behavior plans. I was also able to revamp my small reading group block that focused more on differentiation and meeting the many literacy needs of my students. The knowledge I gained in the psychology of learning and motivation impacted the assignments I gave and the way in which I presented new information to my class. What I have learned over the last two years has greatly impacted my teaching and allowed me to come closer in reaching my goals of best helping all my students be as successful as possible.
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A Look to the Future......
As an educator, I recognize the great value in the learning process and the significance of continuing to learn and grow. While working on my Master of Arts in Education at Michigan State I have gained a great deal of knowledge in many areas. However, as my time as a master’s student is coming to an end, I acknowledge that I still want to gain knowledge in certain areas. When I look into the future, I hope to continue to learn about being a meaningful mentor teacher, advocating for all my students, and implementing more technology into math instruction.
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When I reflect on my own student teaching experience, I realize that I was extremely lucky to have a great mentor teacher. As I have begun my teaching career, this is something I have not taken for granted. I have watched and learned from many amazing teachers over the last few years and I have observed that being a mentor is not something that can happen overnight. In recent school years, I have welcomed a handful of pre-service teachers into my classroom a few times a week. Not to say these experiences were bad, in fact, I enjoyed them but I know as a teacher that there are many things I need to learn in terms of becoming a great mentor teacher. I take this very seriously because in the future, I see myself welcoming student teachers into my classroom. I want to be able to help the next generation of teachers become the very best they can be at a job that is getting increasingly more difficult. I want to be a positive influence and resource for young teachers. In the TEDx by Kenneth Ortiz, he has some tips on being a great mentor. He mentions that great mentors have to welcome their mentees into their lives, create a plan with the mentee's goal in mind, be encouraging, give correction and instruction when needed, and be ready to give lots of time. While reading articles such as The Qualities of Exceptional Mentor Teachers I have also learned that becoming a great mentor takes years of experience in the field and is not something I need to rush but rather continue to build on my knowledge so when the time comes to take a student teacher, I will be ready to pass the baton to the next generation.
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My next future learning goal is to learn how to be a better advocate for all my students. At my current school, we have many EL families who are new to the country and are not aware of all the resources available to their children. While educating my student’s families, I must also be a strong advocate for the needs of my students. As a general education teacher, I am extremely passionate about ensuring all my students have the adequate tools and resources to reach my high expectations of academic success. When it comes to being a good advocate I have learned that I must have a positive relationship and mutual respect with my colleagues. Now that I have this foundation, I know there is more I can do to be an effective advocate. To learn, I will continue to read blogs such as Fighting the Good Fight: How to Advocate for Your Students Without Losing Your Job. I also understand that in order to be a good advocate, I will need to be able to have crucial conversations. To learn about having crucial conversations I will read blogs like Seven Steps to Resolving Conflict in Crucial Conversations. I know as I continue to utilize more resources I will be able to advocate effectively.
My third goal is to incorporate more technology into my math instruction. As an elementary school student myself, I dismissed math because of its difficulty. It has been to my surprise that I have truly found a love for teaching math. Due to my love for math, I want to ensure that my math block is the best it can be and that I am utilizing all resources possible. I recognize that right now, I do not use technology often enough in my math instruction and that is something I would like to change. I want to learn how to increase technology use in math because I feel it can add great value to my differentiated instruction. I will continue to read articles such as Effective Technology Use in Math Class to ensure that I am using technology in an effective and engaging manner that does not take away from the content.
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When I reflect on my future learning goals I find myself feeling excited because learning never ends. There will always be new things or topics for me to learn about as I continue my educational career.
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