I encourage my students and tell them every day that mistakes are how we learn. I never want them to feel discouraged or defeated when they get something wrong or mess up. I try to teach them that no one is perfect and that striving for perfection is an intangible goal. Now, if only as a student I believed those words myself. I suppose I struggle with my own advice due to the extremely high expectations I have for myself and because I truly wanted to ensure I was getting the most out of my experience as a master’s student.  I knew I was only going to be taking ten courses and did not want to feel I was leaving any unlearned information behind. I started my two-year Master of Arts in Education (MAED) journey in the summer of 2022 and I wanted to be sure I was taking full advantage of the entire experience.  When I began my masters I was in my third year of teaching and although I was confident in my own classroom and in my teaching style I found that I did not have confidence when sharing my teaching philosophy. It was to my surprise that as I began taking courses my confidence in sharing my thoughts and growing knowledge with the people around me increased dramatically.  I began this journey with the anticipation of learning how to be the best possible teacher I could be. I had no idea that I would grow into a confident leader within my building. I was able to take so much away from all of the courses I took at Michigan State. However, three of the courses stood out due to their direct impact on my current teaching situation.

 

CEP 841

The first course that had a great impact was the course I took in the summer of 2022 and it was CEP 841: Classroom and Behavior Management in the Inclusive Classroom.  In general, this course focused on classroom management and as a young teacher I went into teaching with a clear vision of my classroom management but I sometimes struggled with explaining my style and justifying my style.  In many ways, this course provided me with the reassurance that my classroom management was beneficial, gave me names for the strategies I was implementing, and allowed me to dig deeper into strategies that I could then elaborate on within my teaching.  One of the first topics discussed in the course that stuck with me was the type of power teachers display in their classrooms. I right away resonated with referent power due to the fact that this form of power is based on mutual respect between the teacher and students. I valued learning about this because I thought it had a great connection to building meaningful relationships with students which I believe is the most important factor in effective classroom management. When we have mutual respect and good relationships with our students we can better recognize when they are stressed, when they are anxious, we can better help them through trauma, and it overall creates a community within the classroom that is crucial for learning.  Another topic discussed was signal interference. I had no idea I was utilizing this within my classroom until taking this course. At the time I had a student in my class that was incredibly hard on herself, especially when learning something new.  I would often remind her how smart she was but in the middle of teaching the lesson that was harder for me to do.  I would be teaching and notice a complete change in her facial expression and body language. I knew that meant she was experiencing negative self-talk. To make her feel better I would wink at her or subtly give her a thumbs up.  She knew that I meant I had confidence in her and I would give her our usual pep talk after the lesson. Signal interference worked well for her and it was a subtle way for me to communicate with her without much of the class noticing. I believe it was important for me to learn about this strategy so I can be mindful to use it more in the future.  I have always been aware that behavior is a form of communication but I was grateful that this course taught me more about behavior function and that we have to analyze behavior before developing a plan to help the student. When I am dealing with a behavior in my class, I find myself regularly asking the following questions.

• What is the behavior?

• When and where does the behavior happen?

• What makes the behavior happen?

• Why does the behavior happen? 

Before I took this course, I knew I generally liked my classroom management style but I was not able to put names to the strategies I was using or always be able to give good justification. The school year after I finished this course I found myself leading a new teacher PLC (professional learning community).  I came up with the PLC to create a safe place for new teachers to share their successes and failures. The knowledge and confidence that I gained from this course played a big impact on the PLC. I became very passionate about sharing effective classroom management tips as I knew many young teachers were really struggling.  During the PLC meetings, I was able to utilize my classroom management presentation that was created for this course. I am grateful for CEP 841 for allowing me to develop a passion for classroom management.      

 

CEP 802

The second course that had a large impact on my teaching was CEP 802: Developing Positive Attitudes Toward Learning. I took this course in the fall of 2022. This course provided me with knowledge of motivational factors within the classroom and it could not have come at a better time. This course very quickly became extremely applicable as during my 2022-2023 school year I was faced with a multitude of behavioral challenges.  One of those challenges was I had a student that had a very difficult time working independently and staying focused on the lessons. He would struggle to get started on his work and maintain interest.  This student needed lots of reminders to get started and oftentimes did not get much work done throughout the day. While the rest of the class was working, this student would blurt out or yell what he would rather be doing instead. As this behavior increasingly got worse throughout the year, I needed a plan and CEP 802 was my answer.  The course was centered around designing a motivational intervention plan for a current student.  This was perfect due to the challenges I was facing in my classroom at the time.  Before creating the plan I had to complete a motivational assessment for my student. The assessment included getting to know more about the student’s background, analyzing the tasks they were being asked to complete, and clearly identifying the problem behavior. I also had to justify that seven preconditions were met within my classroom. Those preconditions were a supportive environment, continuous monitoring, the use of  individual and collaborative goals, providing students with meaningful objectives, teacher expertise, responsive instruction, and appropriate challenges. Along with analyzing the preconditions, I also had to ensure that all aspects of the TARGET framework were utilized. The TARGET framework is a guideline for structuring a classroom in a meaningful way that encourages students to learn or master a goal. The framework includes task, authority, recognition, grouping, evaluation, and time. I was also stopping to reflect on the ways I was already intrinsically and cognitively motivating my students. Even without taking CEP 802, I would have attempted to create some sort of plan to help my struggling student. However, through research, analysis, and reflection CEP 802 gave me the exact steps to create an effective motivational intervention plan.  I am happy to say that the motivational intervention plan that I created was a huge success. The plan was centered around my student’s interest, reminded the student of expectations, gave the opportunity for praise, incorporated the student’s love for technology, and was flexible. I would have never been able to come up with such a successful plan if it were not for CEP 802. This also allowed me to collaborate better with our special education team in preparing my student and his motivational intervention plan for grades to come.    

 

ED 800

The third course that greatly impacted my thinking as a teacher was ED 800: Educational Inquiry and I took this course in the Fall of 2023. In this course, we read five books each providing me with knowledge of a different methodological approach in qualitative research. There was one book that stood out to me and I often still think about it when I am teaching. The book is Troublemakers by Carla Shalaby.  Shalaby uses the research method of portraiture to observe four young students in the hopes of capturing their complex lives in a positive light. While reading this book we were asked to think about the question, “Are schools socializing institutions?”  After reading Troublemakers it was clear that schools do not always value the unique characteristics of students but rather schools try to hide them or see them in a negative light. Due to many schools having this vision, they are attempting to socialize young children to fit in at school and the rigid school expectations versus embracing the unique and great characteristics that make everyone unique that are critical in the outside world of school. I have always believed that no student should go to a school and be forced to leave their culture at the door. The book Troublemakers illustrated that may not be the case at a lot of schools. Zora, one of the students followed in Troublemakers was vibrant, powerful, strong, fearless, adventurous, bright, a visionary, colorful, outstanding, creative, a dreamer, bold, active, determined, unique, capable, and perfect just the way she was. Unfortunately, she was in a school that felt her best chance to be successful in life was to hide those amazing qualities and just fit in, just go unseen, just blend in with everyone else. Zora had a home life that told her the opposite and I hope that she hears what her parents were trying to teach her and the values they are passing down to her. Many schools are attempting to socialize children to fit the rigid culture of school. What they should be doing, is finding a way to create a classroom community that bridges the values that are being taught at home to the values in school. Let children be themselves, let them be fearless, let them be outstanding, and let them shine. I think about Zora and Troublemakers every day that I am teaching.  When I am working with a student who is causing “trouble” I pause to think about what I have learned in ED 800 and that I never want to be the type of teacher that creates an environment where a student feels they cannot be themselves. 

 

As I reflect on how the MAED program has changed me, I would have to say it not only taught me how to be a better teacher through the knowledge that I could apply immediately in my classroom but it also gave me the confidence and excitement to share what I have learned in all ten courses and within my own classroom. Thanks to the MAED program I am not only becoming a leader within my school but have also joined multiple committees to help promote positive change within the school. I will continue to teach my students that mistakes are how we learn and I will continue to listen to my own advice. After all, it is not about the end product or results, it is about the learning process and although I am looking forward to having more free time, I am going to miss being a master’s student. I am extremely grateful to have had such a wonderful and positive experience.