Learning to Teach
Teaching to Learn
As a high school student, learning and school in general was never something that came easy to me. I struggled to find an area of interest or passion to give me a direction. During my senior year I reluctantly enrolled in a class called, Connecting with Exceptional Individuals. This class consisted of learning about students with different disabilities and the main component of working one-on-one with a student with special needs. Needless to say this one class helped me to grow as a person, find my passion, and ultimately identify my calling to become a teacher. As the first in both my immediate and extended family to pursue a career in teaching, I reached out to others within the education field for guidance. As I talked with family friends, my past teachers, and other mentors of mine I quickly learned that education can be both rewarding and also take it toll on some individuals in a negative way. I did not ignore the words of caution I was given as I continued my path into education, I used them as a guide. I was confident in my career choice and knew that my passion for teaching must be focused on helping students. I began my journey at Purdue University majoring in Special Education. As I encountered some twists and turns in life, my path towards my educational degree lead me to Michigan State University (MSU). I earned my degree from MSU in Special Education - Learning Disabilities and completed my student teaching in a 3rd grade classroom and elementary resource room in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I have held three different teaching positions both in elementary and high school settings. Throughout these different positions I continued to encounter educators that seemed to have lost sight of why they entered the field of education. As in the past, I did not ignore these words of caution, but rather I used them rethink how I can impact and help students in a more meaningful way.
After my third year of teaching, I knew I needed to go back to school to earn a master's degree. As I considered different programs I thought about the guiding words I had gathered other the years. I decided on a program that I believed would help better my teaching for students. I decided on a program that I knew would push me out of my comfort zone. I decided on the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University.
I can say with confidence that the MAET program has helped refocus my approach to teaching and has expanded my views to the possibilities of educational technology all with a driving force to help students in the classroom and after they graduate. I have learned the importance of learning from struggles and failure, teaching through a design thinking approach, and connecting learning to real world skills. Although all of my graduate coursework has helped me in different ways, three classes in particular stand out: CEP 810, CEP 811, and CEP 812. ​
My experience in the MAET program was somewhat unique, as I participated in the hybrid sessions for two summers. The hybrid sessions consisted of three courses in six-weeks during the summer of which two weeks was on MSU’s campus for face-to-face learning, and four weeks was online learning. The two weeks of face-to-face work was intense, fast paced, but overall rewarding.
The first course to stand out to me was CEP 810: Teaching for Understanding with Technology. One aspect of the class was a daily Quick-Fire activity. A Quick-Fire activity can be summed up as a challenge, that has constraints or rules, and a time limit. You are encouraged to collaborate with others around you for support and refrain from seeking help or clarification from instructors. During Quick-Fires, I was overwhelmed and stressed to complete the task, explore a new tool, and stay within the time frame. As I completed more Quick-Fire activities I began to become more comfortable problem solving through the task, embracing struggles, and accepting failure as a part of the process. I found Quick-Fires to be a valuable learning experience, as these are some of the pressures my students experience on a daily basis. To address these pressures of stress and anxiety, I realized that I needed to provide practice with tasks to build the skills of problem solving and dealing with struggle.
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I adapted the use of Quick-Fires in my classroom in a non-threatening way. Students are not given a grade on Quick-Fire activities, rather they are evaluated on the effort and participation during the task. I made this decision because I value that in order for my students to take risks they need to have a safe learning environment. By taking away grades, I believe my students feel more safe to struggle and learn from their failures. As students take part in more Quick-Fire activities I will continue to foster a learning environment the encourages the importance of learning from struggles and failure.
The second course to stand out to me was CEP 811: Adapting Innovative Technologies in Education. Through this course I was introduced to a new concept known as the maker movement. In short, the maker movement can be summarized as encouraging individuals to create, play, build, and learn through technology and working with their hands. In my MAET summer cohort we were given the challenge to host a Maker Faire. To say the least this challenge was stressful however, the experience I gained in the end was invaluable. From this course, I learned how to apply the steps of design thinking to create a meaningful experience for all types of learners.
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The adventure to host a Maker Faire began with diving into the world of making. Through online articles, videos, magazines, and more I learned about making, makers, makerspaces, and maker faires. In addition, my cohort was able to tour two maker spaces on Michigan State’s campus. After gaining a better understanding of the maker movement our team moved on to organizing, branding, and developing activities for our Maker Faire.
To assist in the process of creating our Maker Faire our instructors introduced us to Stanford D. School’s Design Thinking Process. This process is broken down into steps of empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. These steps aide in approaching a problem or task is a unique way to ultimately form a creative solution. I experienced using this design process for the overall creation of the Maker Faire and with my partner in the creation of our a booth at the Maker Faire called, The Power to Conduct. To begin empathizing our group brainstormed what type of individuals we would expect to attend our Maker Faire; we considered their backgrounds, interests, and needs. With our audience in mind we defined what we wanted to accomplish through generating many questions. In the next step of ideate, we generated as many possible ideas - making sure to include any and all ideas. In the prototype stage we turned our ideas into a product and conducted a trial run. In the final step of test, we used the feedback from the trial run to make any changes. Click here for more detail on the Maker Faire and the application of the design thinking process.​
The outcome of our Maker Faire and the booth my partner and I put together was a success. Participants young and old enjoyed their maker experience. As a part of the design process it's important to remember there is always the opportunity to refine and improve. I believe that the best part about the design thinking process is that there is no defined end. It is a process that can continue to evolve and improve overtime. In my teaching I have applied design thinking to create lessons that target specific types of learners that I work with. As I continue teaching, I will continue to adapt and improve my lessons based on the five steps to create lessons that are thoughtful and meaningful for my students.
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The third and final course to stand out to me was CEP 812: Applying Educational Technology to Practice. In this course, my group and I explored a complicated problem in education, known better in the MAET program as a wicked problem. A wicked problem is one that appears to not have a solution because of its complexity and it can not easily be solved with one solution. My group and I focused on finding potential solutions to the problem: How to keep education relevant? From this course, I learned the importance of teaching students real world skills that they can transfer into their future.
To begin our research each individual in the group reached out to their Personal Learning Networks (PLN) through email, Twitter, and Facebook. Our communities included teachers from elementary through high school, public and private schools, and spanning all of Michigan from Mackinac to Detroit. In our survey we asked the following questions: Do you think education is relevant? How well do you feel K-12 education is connected to workforce development? Should schools model workforce development? Is technology being used properly in your school to keep education relevant? Do you feel prepared to use the technology tools that are available? ​
The responses to our survey helped my group in narrowing down to a few focal points. We saw that a majority of teachers did not feel that students education connected to their workforce development. Also, that technology is an important part of keeping education relevant. This information helped in shaping a potential solution on how to keep education relevant.​
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Our best solution included aligning our education system standards to business and employer needs and implementing technology committees to share, support, and educate teachers in using technology in a meaningful and purposeful way. This is far from a simple solution, but it a start in the right direction.
This potential solution made me reflect on my own practices within my classroom in supporting my students. Working with high school students, I must begin to prepare them for life after high school and ultimately society and work. In my current district of employment we are focusing on creating future citizens with the attributes found is the SAS Learner Profile. In my classroom I focus on developing four areas of the profile which are communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity through Quick-Fire activities and explicit instruction. These are skills that are necessary for learning, but more importantly these are skills that can transfer later into the workforce to provide my students a successful future.​
As my MAET journey comes to a close, I am proud of how I have grown as a person and most importantly as a teacher. I have gained numerous experiences, skills, and ideas along the way. I have also made so many valuable connections with outstanding educators and instructors that I will continue to foster. I have strengthened my teaching practices by learning from struggle and failure, teaching through a design thinking approach, and connecting learning to real world skills. Although this may be the end of the MAET program for me, it marks the beginning of another journey in my teaching practice. Three years ago, I decided on the MAET program at Michigan State University. Now, I have decided to use my degree to sharpen my teaching to help students in the classroom and in their future.​