Katelyn Provo
One Stop on a Long Road: My Master’s Journey
My decision to go back to Michigan State University to complete my master’s degree was a pretty easy one. I went to Michigan State for my undergraduate work and earned a degree in Child Development. MSU provided me with so many great opportunities and experiences. I was excited to enroll as a Spartan again. MSU gave me the option to complete all of my courses online. This flexibility would allow me to balance my current teaching job with my pursuit of further education. The ability to work on assignments and complete coursework after school hours was not only convenient, but also essential for me to balance my professional and educational responsibilities. I am involved in several activities at school and it is very important to me to be able to maintain my commitments. I wanted to devote the necessary time to my studies without having to compromise the involvement I have with my students. Therefore, online courses were fundamental to my goal of furthering my education and completing my master’s degree.
My master’s journey technically began during my yearlong internship. As part of my internship program I enrolled in four graduate courses, three of which were able to transfer over to a number of masters programs offered at Michigan State. These classes served as a great foundation to build upon for the rest of my masters program. They gave me general teaching strategies, tools and techniques to use in my classroom.
Trying to decide which masters program to apply for was very challenging, there were quiet a few programs that interested me and it took me a while to narrow it down. After a lot of research and deliberation, I finally decided to work on a Masters of Arts in Education Degree (MAED) with a concentration in special education. My personal and professional experiences guided me to choose this concentration. As an educator, it is important to provide children with the best possible education. I have worked with children that have a wide variety of needs; this helped me realize that I wanted to learn more about teaching special education students. I wanted to learn how to adapt my planning and customize my instruction to support the variety of learners in my classroom. Accommodating for children with disabilities is important for inclusion and crucial to providing the least restrictive learning environment. I thought that this program would prepare me to handle the learning and behavioral difficulties that come with having an inclusive classroom. I felt that these courses would help me better serve children with disabilities, all students in my classroom will benefit from my new strategies. I felt that focusing on special education would ensure that I had the greatest tools for teaching every child in my classroom.
Being a new teacher one of the aspects that I found most difficult was classroom management. Running a classroom with 27 busy, active and enthusiastic six and seven year olds is much different than talking through scenarios in an undergraduate class. I felt like I could use some new techniques and strategies to make my classroom run more efficiently. Therefore, one of my goals during my master’s work was to improve my classroom management.
I took a number of courses that addressed classroom management. One course that I felt was especially helpful with classroom management was CEP 883 Psychology of Classroom Discipline. One focus of this course was classroom climate. We spent a while discussing the importance of building a positive and supportive classroom climate. This means helping students create positive relationships with each other and with myself, while keeping an open line of communication with parents.
This course really helped me reflect on my teaching techniques. One thing I pride myself on is my relationships with my students and my positive classroom environment. However, this course helped me realize I could work on helping the students in my class build better peer relationships. Thinking about how I facilitated student-to-student relationships made me realize I wasn’t really doing enough to help my students get to know each other and build positive and supportive relationships among themselves. This course provided me with a number of get to know you activities I could use to help my students build relationships with each other. This in turn helped us build a stronger and more supportive classroom environment.
Going into this course I felt like I had pretty good relationships with my students and that I was already starting to build a positive classroom environment. This course reminded me of the importance of positive praise. This course helped me reflect and find ways I could strengthen my home school relationships. I created goals for myself to improve my parent relationships. Even though parent participation is low in my school I needed to make more of an effort to reach out to the parents in my room. I set goals for myself including to make at least 5 positive parent phone calls or notes home a week. To send home a welcome note the first day of school. I know using these techniques to build relationships with parents will help my students succeed.
This class also helped me reflect on and gain a deeper understanding of the concept of proactive management. There are multiple elements involved in setting up my classroom for success. The physical layout of my classroom is important. The way my desks and tables are arranged effects how my students move through the room. Children need a well-organized classroom where they can easily find and access materials needed to complete assignments. I need to set up proper routines, procedures and classroom rules to help my students take responsibility for their actions. As well as structuring my schedule and lessons in a way to keep students actively engaged which will help prevent misbehaviors from students with too much time on their hands. It is amazing how much goes into running a classroom effectively and efficiently. For this class I created a comprehensive classroom management plan for how I wanted to set up my classroom this year. Creating this plan was very beneficial. It made me actually sit down and think through each step of how I wanted to set up my classroom.
Another very influential and beneficial course I took while earning my MAED was CEP 841 Classroom & Behavior Management in the Inclusive Classroom. One major focus in this class was Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Before this class I had a basic understanding of PBIS, but I didn’t truly understand the power of using PBIS. Not only does PBIS help students with special needs it is beneficial for all students. PBIS focuses on using proactive strategies for defining, teaching, and supporting appropriate student behavior. This course encouraged me to use PBIS techniques in my classroom and to join a committee working to implement PBIS School wide.
We also looked at some of the reasons behind student misbehavior. This gave me a fresh perspective on misbehavior in my classroom. It challenged me to stop and think about the reasons why a child could be misbehaving. Misbehavior is often the result of an unmet need. This course helped me look at some of the underlying causes of misbehavior and gave some suggestions for effectively dealing with certain types of misbehavior.
In this course we also discussed the topic of student motivation. I learned a number of techniques to help increase student motivation. This course helped me realize that motivation is connected to behavior. It pushed me to think about how I would restructure my environment to improve motivation, thus decreasing behavioral challenges. One portion of motivation is the belief that you can be successful. I would support this by giving clear directions and explaining my expectations. Especially in first grade children need examples and non-examples to understand how to successfully complete assignments. Children also need to feel safe and respected. Building a positive classroom community where children feel safe to take academic risks is crucial for increasing student participation and learning. Also, having high expectations for all students and communicating these high expectations is important. Students should feel that I believe in them and have high expectations for them. Using a variety of instructional styles and creating various groupings for student work is important for motivation. Incorporating technology, songs and short videos into lessons can help motivate students. Mixing up how students complete assignments can also motivate students. Having students sometimes work individually, with a partner and in a small group. Also incorporating student interests helps with motivation. It is not reasonable to expect every lesson to incorporate the interests of every student. However, if I take the time to get to know my students and make and effort to incorporate their interests this will positively effect student motivation. Giving students choices helps them feel connected and can motivate them. It can be as simple as letting students choose one of three writing topics to work on. Figuring out what motivates my students will help me increase student participation and learning while decreasing student’s misbehavior.
Another goal I wanted to achieve while earning my MAED was to learn more techniques to help the students who are struggling with literacy skills in my classroom. An important course that helped me with this goal was TE 846 Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners. This course focused on literacy instruction and assessment. It addressed some of the cultural and linguistic needs of English Language Learners (ELL) and touched on some programs that can be used to help ELL students in the classroom. It addressed some characteristics of students with language and learning difficulties. It offered suggestions on how to accommodate for different learners needs. It addressed the components of effective literacy instruction including, phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, reading, writing and comprehension.
One project in this course that I found very meaningful was the Child study. I conducted an in depth literacy analysis of a second grade child. I conducted pre-assessment and created three extensive lessons that focused on this child’s literacy needs. I conducted progress-monitoring assessments and implemented a post assessment. I also reflected on my findings and made suggestions on future activities that could help this learner.
One final influential course in my master’s journey was ED 870 Capstone. This course focused a lot on reflection. Reflecting on what I have learned while earning my MAED. I worked to create a professional portfolio to highlight some of the work I completed while earning my degree. However, this course did more than just help me create a portfolio. It gave me a chance to really step back and look at all I have accomplished and learned over the past few years. Not just all the classes I have taken, papers I have written or projects I have completed. But, how my philosophy as a teacher and the techniques I use in my classroom has changed. Focusing on using more positive praise in my classroom, working hard to build and maintain relationships with my students and their families. Support and suggestions from my instructors and classmates have helped me shape my website into an excellent showcase of my learning and skills. Not just my journey to earn my MAED, but my journey of becoming the teacher I am today.
Earning my MAED is one part on a long road of continuing education. I am not just completing this journey to fulfill some state requirements. I am working to be the best teacher I can be for my students. Completing classes and earning a MAED degree helped me learn more skills and techniques I can share with my students. I want to support my students and help them become their best. The only way I can do that is to continue to work on improving myself and becoming my best. Becoming an expert teacher is a never ending journey in the pursuit of knowledge. Continuing to learn new strategies and techniques and staying current with best practice.