Becoming a Student Again:

How four years of being a student again has given me the power to create life long learners

 

The Journey: I started the path to gaining my Master of Arts in Education degree from Michigan State University in the fall of 2011 as a student teacher in a first grade classroom. My first year of teaching I knew that I wanted to continue learning how to better myself and my students in the classroom which is what lead me to continue my studies in the Masters of Arts in Education program at Michigan State University. Throughout this program I have learned more about myself as a student and teacher, as well as gain a new perspective through the eyes of students in my classroom. On top of this I grew as a learner, became a better teacher, gained a higher understanding for the professional setting, and understood the saying life-long learner. However my success in school did not start until my masters program.

 

Me as a student: From the time I began school at the age of 5 my mother has said that it was hard for me. As I grew older I remember having to spend more time on my spelling words than any other of my friends. As I moved into high school all my friends spent no time studying and ended up Salutatorian while I meet with a tutor every week so that I could try to score as high as everyone else in the ACT and get into the only school I knew was right for me, Michigan State University. Even with all my hard work Michigan State did not let me in the first semester instead they made me wait. I finally entered Michigan State University in the spring of my freshman year. I began my semester enrolled in the standard writing class every freshman had to take. Not a great way to start my college career since I had never really written a paper in my life. I struggled every week to figure out how to write a college paper. Then it got worse when my professor called me into her office hours to discuss that college wasn’t for everyone and that I should think about dropping out and finding something else to do. Naturally I cried then got myself together and decided that I would never let a student feel the way that I did at that moment. That is part of how I came into teaching.

 

Me as a teacher: From the moment I started student teaching I knew that this job was never going to be easy. As I tried to survive my first year I looked to mentors to help me understand the needs of my students and those around me. I soon learned that there are all different types of teachers and that I needed to further my understanding of this career in order to then work with others to help create the best learning environment as professionals and for our students. Teaching is nothing that can be done alone. With over 28 different learners walking into your classroom every year, strength comes in numbers. It was then that I was ready to enter into a community of learners working together to create a better profession and become life-long learners of our own. The MAED program did just that for me. From the beginning every course was designed to get students discussing their learning. I learned to work with others in order to gain a deeper understanding of the work I am doing. This was the first big component that the program taught me throughout my courses. In return I was able to bring back to my school and classroom skills in communicating with others and working together in a professional setting.

 

My Journey in the Program: As a student in the masters program I started off pretty low. From the beginning I was put on probation because of the score I received on my ACT standardized test. I was sixteen years old when I took that test and because of what I knew at sixteen I was being punished. It didn’t matter to the school that I had received some of the highest evaluations, or that my class had shown the most growth on their standardized test, or even that I was given highly effective ratings for consecutive years. All that mattered was a number on a test that was taken in one day. This was the second moment that I knew I was going to prove to myself and for everyone of my students that was being evaluated based on a test score taken in one day that you go to school and learn not for a number on a test but for yourself too.  In return it allows you to better yourself and those around you.

 

My first few semesters consisted of papers proving that I could articulate in writing what I was learning from the course. I did what I was asked and 4.0 every class I completed. However it wasn’t until a summer course I took titled CEP 810 Teaching for Understanding with Technology that I felt I was being heard and being taught as an individual student. From the beginning of the course the instructor took the time to learn who I was as a learner. Not just what my name was or my favorite movie, instead the instructor asked questions about what I knew about technology in the classroom and what I wanted to get out of this course. What made this course so powerful for me as a learner was the chance not only to learn but also explore and apply what I needed to learn for myself in order to advance my understanding in technology.  We were given the chance to create something we had never done before and then explore new resources we had never used. This gave me so many choices, which in the end is what motivated me. I was able to pick something that I wanted to learn more about and explore a resource I could apply to my classroom. This became such a powerful tool to transfer over to my own classroom. It helped me to see that all of my students are not interested in the same things and that all of them have different knowledge in different areas.  This course made me look deeper into each student’s prior knowledge and needs as well as use the power of choice to motivate every learner in my classroom.

 

Becoming a Teacher of Life-long Learners: I entered this program in the past with a goal to be a better literacy teacher. This is why I specialized in literacy courses. What I didn’t know is that I would research and then learn what my opinion on what good literacy practices are. During TE 849 Methods and Materials for Teaching Children’s and Adolescent Literature I spent an entire semester research why literacy matters in the classroom and to me. I learned to research multiple sources and views of best literacy practices and then use those to form my own position. In return I was able to take that back to my classroom. Even in a first grade classroom my program taught me that knowledge is power but it is our job to find it and that includes first grades. It looks different but it feels the same when you can form an opinion based on facts. It gave me the feeling of ownership over my learning and in return did the same for many of my students especially in their information writing pieces.

 

Writing has always been a challenge for me both as a student and teacher. Going back to elementary school I remember nothing about writing except for my fifth grade teacher who submitted a poem I wrote and got it published in a book I still have. I have no memory of writing that poem but I do remember the confidence and excitement I felt about it. Then I moved to high school and never wrote again until my senior research paper. The only memory I have from that is not actually writing it because my teacher thought it was so bad he rewrote the whole thing for me. Helpful, or not I thought it was at the time. That is until I started my freshman year at Michigan State University. As previously discussed the papers in college never got easier and no one offered to help me until my graduate course TE 848 Writing Assessment & Instruction. It is important for me to talk about the past when discussing what this MAED program has done for me, and my future as a teacher. TE 848 showed me that there is no wrong way to write but there is a right way to learn. Every student comes from a different learning background and environment. This course taught me that as teachers it is our job to learn this about our students and then teach them from there. As a student in the course I learned what it felt like to be treated as an individual student and how motivating that can be. In return my classroom that semester and in the future became a place of support for my individual learners. I still taught the standards but I know longer said you all must do it this way. In return students actually taught me new ways of doing things. That is when I realized that I forever would be a life long student and learner.

 

Me in this Capstone and in the Future: Schooling has never been easy for me as you can see and I continued to face challenged in the current ED 870 Capstone Seminar course. However as this current course works to make me reflect on my experience during this program I have learned about my self as a student, teacher, and forever learner. As a student I know see that all it takes is one course to forever motivate and encourage you as a student. As a teacher I see that all it might take is one year in my classroom to be given the chance to support, encourages, individualize, and motivate my students to be the forever learners that I have become. The Masters in Arts Education has taught me that you can learn from all around including your students. It is the power to want to learn and grow that the program leaves you with. Graduating from this program has left me with that and I will forever remind myself and encourage others both in and outside my classroom, professionally and personally. Michigan State Spartans will forever be the leaders of tomorrow, including myself.