Mrs. Martin

Introduction

As my time in Michigan State University’s Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program comes to an end, I have the opportunity to reflect on what I have learned during my time in this program, along with how I have grown as a teacher, learner and student. 
Each course that I have enrolled in while completing my Master’s degree has helped shape my ideas and opinions of education.  After graduation, I will have completed a total of ten courses.  I was fortunate enough to be enrolled in a program that allowed me to choose courses that would help me develop skills that would be most beneficial for me.  
It is my plan to work with at-risk, collegiate student-athletes, so I decided to focus my coursework on sports and coaching, literacy and reading, and working with diverse populations of learners.  While each of the courses that I took was helpful in allowing me to enhance and develop skills that I will use when assisting my future students, there were four courses in particular that were essential in my development throughout this program.  These courses were:
- Teacher Education (TE) 846: Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners
- Educational Administration (EAD) 822: Engaging Diverse Students and Families
- Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education (CEP) 802: Developing Positive Attitudes Toward Learning
- Teacher Education (TE) 848: Writing Assessment and Instruction
Each of the above courses helped equip me with skills and techniques that will help me as I begin my career.

 
Teacher Education (TE) 846: Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners

When I started this Master’s program, I had a strong foundation and understanding of the educational world in terms of secondary education.  I spent four years as an undergraduate in Michigan State University’s College of Education program with a focus in secondary education and a major in English.  However, I had very little knowledge of, or instruction on, how to work with an older population of students, or how to work specifically with students who are struggling academically.

I took TE 846 during the first half of my time in the Master’s program. The focus of this class was to help its educators develop the necessary skills that they would need in order to work with students of various academic abilities.  This particular class was extremely helpful because it directly tied into what I wanted to do in the future.  As someone who was looking to work with academically, at-risk college athletes, TE 846 taught me various skills that I could use when working with these students.  The class specifically focused on literacy learners, and how educators could support various levels of student’s abilities when working on reading and writing.

The main assessment for this course was a semester long case study that each student was required to complete.   My case study focused on two college student-athletes that I was working with, Jenna and Kristi. Jenna and Kristi were both freshman in college, and they were beginning to discover the amount of work it took to do well in college courses.  Therefore, I spent the semester working with them on developing reading comprehension skills that they could use to help them comprehend their course readings. 

The first reading comprehension strategy that I worked on with the students was helping them to become more observant about how a piece of text was structured.  Many college students end up reading various expository texts in college, and freshman are forced to become accustomed to these texts during their first year of school.

When choosing skills to focus on, I tried to think of things that would help these students excel across multiple academic areas.  Being able to utilize text structure can be a skill that transfers itself into other areas of academia. 

During my time working with Jenna and Kristi, I closely observed each student.  I took notes about what I observed, and I archived those notes so I could assess student growth over the course of the semester.  Furthermore, I also helped each student develop note-taking skills that they could use while examining the text structure for information.

 
Overall, this project and course were extremely effective in helping me understand how to observe students working, identifying ways to help those students, and how to implement effective plans that will help each student succeed.   I will use these skills often when working with collegiate student-athletes because I will need to have the ability to observe and identify what skills they are struggling with, and I will need to have the knowledge of how to create an educational plan that will help them not only succeed right now, but in the future as well.   

Educational Administration (EAD) 822: Engaging Diverse Students and Families

During the summer of 2012, I took EAD 822.  This course was condensed from the normal 16-week course format to a 6-week format due to the fact that I took it in the summer.  The main focus of this course was helping its students learn how to work with students and families who were of different backgrounds.  I decided to pick this class because it related directly to my future career.  As someone who is working towards a job with collegiate student-athletes, I know that I will be assisting a very diverse group of students.  More specifically, some of the main issues that this course had me examine were how race, ethnicity, school location and socioeconomic status can effect one’s ability to learn and their success in school.   As a result, I knew that this course would directly and significantly impact me. 

At the conclusion of this course, I wrote a 12-page term paper that examined various aspects of teaching in regards to diversity.  I studied the ways that my former high school, where I graduated from in 2007, had changed over the past 5 years.  When I was a student there, there was very little diversity in both the student and teacher population.  However, a new administration came in after I graduated and worked to diversify the culture by bringing in foreign exchange students and allowing more school of choice students to attend high school.  As a result, this has greatly increased the number of students who are from a different race and culture (Manny, personal communication, June 14, 2012). 

One of the aspects that I looked at was cultural relevant teaching practices.  This idea examines the importance that teachers acknowledge if they are of a different race or culture than the student(s) that they are working with (Ladson-Billings, 2009, 19).  Students will recognize this fact, so it is vital that teachers discuss it with them and make this difference a positive rather than something that is never addressed.  I took the information that I had gathered from my research about my former high school, along with course readings, and discussed the various ways that teachers could integrate cultural relevant teaching in order to help their students.  
This course, the readings that were required, and the content that it focused on helped prepare me for working with a culturally diverse population in the future.  Out of all the classes that I took during my time in the MAED program, this was the most valuable course in terms of helping equip me with necessary and useful tools that I will use during my career.

Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education (CEP) 802: Developing Positive Attitudes Toward Learning

The course’s content and readings focused on how and why students are motivated to learn.  Furthermore, it helped those who were enrolled in the course learn, study and practice various ways to motivate students.  This idea of developing strategies to help motivate students to learn was something that I had never really given much thought to before.  However, this course helped me to realize that teachers and educators have a role and responsibility to help motivate students. 

This course required a comprehensive and semester long case study in which students completed a motivational assessment on a student that they were working with.  As a result, I developed a motivational plan to help enhance a student’s motivation to learn.  I utilized the TARGET model (Oka, 2012, Unit 1) in order to provide a breakdown as to how I would motivate this student to engage in course work and assignments.  The following components make up the TARGET model (Oka, 2012, Unit 1):
- Task
- Authority
- Recognition
- Grouping
- Evaluation
- Time  

Personally, this class related directly to my future career.  By working with a diverse population of students, I will definitely encounter those who are unmotivated to learn. 
However, student-athletes must put a focus on educational success in order to remain eligible to compete in their sports.  Therefore, there is a very large problem if students are not motivated because the punishments can be severe for them and their team. 

As a result, being equipped with the proper tools to help students gain the motivation to excel in school is an incredibly valuable skill for me to have. 

Teacher Education (TE) 848: Writing Assessment and Instruction

The focus of this course was looking closely at how teachers can teach and assess student writing.  At the beginning of the semester, I was uneasy about this course because I really did not see how it was going to benefit me in preparing to work with collegiate student-athletes.  My main concern, at the beginning, was the fact that I will not be an instructor of a college course.  Therefore, I did not see how the assessment portion of this course would benefit me. However, I am truly glad that I stuck with it because I gained so much knowledge from completing the coursework in this class.

For the final project in this course, I made sure to focus on something that related to working with student-athletes so it would be applicable to me.  Therefore, I decided to develop a lesson that focused on various, common areas of struggle that I have seen present in many of the students that I help.  I also included a cover letter to the academic coordinators and Director of Student-Athlete Support Services (SASS) and a letter to my direct supervisor, Gina, in which I detailed my proposal and why I felt it would be helpful. 

This class and project taught me how I can assess student progress and determine areas where they are struggling.  It also gave me the confidence and experience to develop a plan of action in order to help students enhance their skills in areas that they are struggling in.   

While I was apprehensive about this course at the beginning, it ended up teaching me more than I ever thought it would.  The skills and lessons that I learned about writing and writing instruction are ones that I will utilize very often in my career, and they are ones that my students will benefit from, as well.

Conclusion

The courses listed above are only a small sampling of the many courses that I took during my time in the MAED program at MSU.  Each course, even if it was not discussed in this paper, taught me something and aided in my development as a student, learner and teacher.  However, I specifically decided to talk about the four courses listed above because they each connected with me, and my future career, in someway that was very meaningful to me. 

The online format was one that I was nervous about.  However, I enjoyed this format immensely.  The freedom that it allowed me to have in terms of turning in my work and listening to lectures was very conducive to my work schedule.  Furthermore, I still felt as though I was able to connect with other students and professors so I experienced that personal connection and interaction as well.  I also appreciated the opportunity that the online format gave me to experience and test computer programs.  As a result, I have gained a much better understanding of website generating programs, Skype, GoogleDocs, and Go to Meeting. 

This program also forced me to critically think about various educational issues such as race, ethnicity, and teaching to diverse populations in ways that I had never been required to do so before.  During these times of thought, I often noticed myself thinking about the students that I was working with and putting myself into their shoes.  It was incredibly insightful and helpful for me because it allowed me to connect with them.  It helped me to feel as though I understood them a little more, and it made me confident in my ability to teach them the educational skills that they would need in order to succeed. This program shaped me as a learner, educator and student, and most importantly it reminded me to never stop seeking the desire to learn.   

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Works Cited

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Ladson-Billings, G. (2009). The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African-American  Children. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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Manny, Carol. Personal interview. 14 June 2012.

 

Oka, E. (2012, September). Increasing Motivation Through Design. In Angel. Retrieved  September 17, 2012