Capstone Essays
Here you will be able to read some essays that will give you a more in-depth look at my program and the multitude of different ways it has impacted my learning, teaching, and goal setting.
When I first entered my MAED program at MSU, my main goal was pretty much to earn my master’s degree because it felt like the next step in my career development. I chose the literacy education specialization because I am highly interested in developing my abilities to teach literacy skills, so the idea of earning an advanced degree while honing my current skills and learning new ones became my secondary goal. While these initial goals would continue to drive a lot of my work over the course of my program, after my first few classes being slightly different than I expected, I started to add an an additional goal: learn as much as I can about aspects of education that I have had little to no experience with thus far in my career.
In regards to my goal of developing my literacy education skills, I have taken multiple courses that have been around developing strong assessments for students as well as how to make my classroom increasingly accessible to students of all literacy levels. TE 843, which was about Secondary Reading Assessment and Instruction, gave me new insight into the creation of slides and presentations for my students which is something I hadn’t put much thought into in recent years, but was an area that I quickly realized had place for growth. These more traditional teaching practice and methods courses taught me a lot and went a long way to helping me accomplish some of the initial goals I had going into this master’s program.
The goal I developed as the program went on though, to learn about aspects of education that I had up to this point not been regularly exposed to or had spent little if any time with in a critical manner, ended up being the primary driving force that made me so passionate about being successful in this program. The first course I took about a topic that I had little prior knowledge of was a course on Children’s Literature in Film. Having been a high school social studies teacher for the majority of my career so far, I have not spent much time with children’s literature as a teacher, so I was really looking forward to learning about this topic and it ended up being one of the most interesting courses I had taken in years. I actually enjoyed this class so much that I ended up taking another course about classics and awards in children’s literature to develop my understanding of this topic in relation to teaching.
The primary thing that this program and my teacher career in general has taught me about my goals is that it is important to be flexible and to embrace change it comes. So while I had my goals going into my master’s, I also had an open mind about my own learning and passions and it resulted in me not only feeling like I have accomplished the goals I laid out for myself, but I also learned how to set goals in the moment and feel fulfilled in the attainment of them as well.
Setting and striving to reach goals has played a significant role in my life both personally and professionally, and as I’ve accomplished some and struggled with others, I’ve learned about the importance of having a plan to achieve those goals. Now that I am over half a decade into my teaching career, I’ve started to get a better idea of what kind of educator I want to become and the things that I need to do to get there.
Some of my major goals are around becoming the most well rounded social studies teacher that I can become. Since I was an undergraduate, there have been certain areas in history that I have always been heavily focused on and have developed a strong content knowledge of, but as I got older and was actually in front of students, I started to realize that I did not have as robust a knowledge of different areas as I would like. In order to accomplish this larger goal, I have come up with three smaller goals that I believe will help me become the best social studies teacher that I am capable of becoming.
Take advantage of professional development opportunities.
I have joined both the National Council for Social Studies and the National Council for History Education (NCHE), having attended the 2019 conference for NCHE in Washington, DC. There are so many different educators with so many experiences around this country, and when I was at the conference in 2019 I was learning about amazing innovations and ideas that I frankly may never have been exposed to in any other circumstance, and it was incredibly inspiring having my ideas and thoughts about my teaching practice being pushed and challenged. Being a part of these organizations and attending conferences has exposed me to ideas and theories about education that I may not have otherwise learned and has impacted my practice very positively.
Teach a variety of different social studies courses.
Up to this point in my career, I have taught 8th grade US history, 7th grade US history, 9th grade Civics, 12th grade current events/civic engagement, a summer program about civil rights, a summer program about US influence on South America, and sixth grade ancient world history. The sixth grade ancient world history course I’ve been teaching in particular has had an invigorating impact on my practice, with me reteaching and relearning topics that I haven’t delved into since my AP World History course from nearly fifteen years ago. Each of these experiences has helped me improve my history knowledge and ability to teach a wide range of students and skills as well has served as a reminder of why I love history as a whole, and I look forward to teaching other courses as my career continues.
Learn from and graciously accept constructive feedback from peers/coaches with more expertise.
Receiving constructive feedback can be difficult at times, but over the course of my career as I’ve had both mentors that I meshed with incredibly well and those who I did not see eye to eye, I’ve always found that I’ve gained at least some new positive strategy from our work together. My current coach has introduced me to what has turned out to be a pretty fantastic resource from Stanford called the Stanford History Education Group. This website had provided me with materials and ideas to teach about portions of history that are not my expertise, and by allowing myself to be open to constructive feedback and criticism, I have found myself able to become a better educator.
Overall, when I think about the future goals I have and the ways that I want to achieve them, it almost always comes back to me continually being open to learning. There are certain areas of my practice where I feel very confident in my abilities, but there are other areas where I know I have a ways to go in order to develop my expertise. With these goals in mind, I am hoping that I will find ways to continually strive for growth and push myself to take advantage of all the resources before me as well as seek out new resources when what’s before me isn’t working. And when I struggle with any of these goals, I hope to keep my love of history and education at the forefront of my mind to keep me going.
My Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program through Michigan State University has been rewarding in a number of different ways and has significantly helped me develop my thinking around a variety of different aspects of my teaching practice. Being a master’s program, I was fully expecting that I would be going into a scenario where I would be challenged and have the opportunity to learn a lot, but the diversity of courses and techniques with which professors taught those courses and shared information with me made the work I did even more rewarding.
Unlike a number of my peers who started their master’s programs almost immediately after finishing their bachelor degree or student teaching, I did not start my program until I was a few years into my career. While at first I felt like I was a little bit late to the game and behind some of my peers who completed their programs much earlier than I did, I soon found that the experience that I had teaching students in schools for years actually allowed me to get much more out of the program than I would have if I got this advanced degree without teaching experience. The amount of time I had spent in the classroom allowed me to make connections to the content in ways that would not have been possible if I started this program right after my student teaching, and being able to put the skills I was learning in this program to use in the classroom in real time also enhanced my experience significantly.
While each of the courses that I took over the duration of my program helped me improve my practice and develop new skills, there were a few courses that challenged me in particular ways that have really stuck with me and had a continuous impact on the way I both develop and teach lessons. Three courses I took during this program that changed my thinking the most and have had the most immediate impact on my teaching were: Children’s Literature in Film with Professor Apol, Diverse Students and Families with Professor Stein, and Awards and Classics in Children’s Literature with Professor Grisham.
Before I get into the meat of why these courses had such a significant impact on my learning and my teaching practice, I want to state that going into this program I chose to specialize in literacy education. When I first chose that specialization, I had a relatively narrow idea of what that would look like in my courses based on various professional development opportunities that I have had and various academic literature I had read on the topic and used in the classroom. I was fully expecting this to be an incredibly data and strategy heavy program, but what I found instead was an experience that I felt not only prepared me to be more effective in the classroom, but also pushed my thinking in ways that redefined my ideas of what literacy should look like and in turn has made me more creative in the classroom than I ever imagined. Now, let me write about three of the courses that helped reshape my thinking about literacy.
Children's Literature in Film
Having a background and bachelor degree in history, I have not taken very many literature classes since I was in high school, so Professor Apol’s Children’s Literature in Film was both a great reintroduction to a literature based course. This long spell without a class like this,, as well as my interest in the topic having taken a history class based on films, set me up for what would become an incredibly rich and engaging experience. While in this course, I read and watched films about stories that I had enjoyed in my childhood but had not really read or watched since, and looking at these different interpretations of children’s stories from both an adult and an educator’s perspective had a pretty big impact on the way I read and watch media for children. Using popular culture in the classroom has always been something that I have enjoyed and something that I have felt like I excel at, so the way in which Professor Apol had me analyze these works took my practice to a new level.
One example of a way that I used the analytical skills I learned in Professor Apol’s course in the classroom was through the teaching of a film from 2002 called Whale Rider. I had seen this film previously and liked it on a number of levels, but after this course I saw some of the ways that I could connect it to readings we were doing in class about mythology of various indigenous cultures. I used the analytical skills I developed from this course to stir the critical thinking skills in students’ minds as we talked about how the film connected to ideas we learned in class as well as looked at different decisions that were made by the filmmakers and actors in the story. By the time we finished this lesson it became clear that this change in thinking about how to use film in the classroom had a positive impact both on my teaching and on the students’ experience.
Awards and Classics in Children’s Literature
Along similar lines as the Children’s Literature in Film course, the Awards and Classics in Children’s Literature course with Professor Grisham provided me with some more experience developing a new kind of thinking about my teaching by pushing me to look at different content in a different way. I have admittedly not done all that much thinking about literary awards before, definitely not awards for children’s literature, so learning about the ways that these works earn awards and the criteria that is used to judge them was interesting. Even more interesting than that though, was learning about the numerous biases that have gone into the award granting process for decades as well as how there were some “critically acclaimed” stories that a group of adults chose (Secret of the Andes) over one of the most beloved pieces of children’s literature from the 1900s (Charlotte’s Web). Having been a film lover since I was young, the slew of issues with awards was something that I also noticed often with the film industry, so while it was disappointing, it was not too far of a stretch for me to see how a number of these awards and the process by which they are earned, are flawed.
Through this Awards and Classics in Children’s Literature course, I was also given great insight into the importance of representation in literature, and this has in turn resulted in me trying to find and include literature/readings in my history courses that better reflect and represent my students. I currently teach sixth grade ancient world history, and due to a number of the cultures that best represent my students having histories primarily based on oral tradition, there are not many primary sources for us to analyze. However, the oral tradition from West Africa in particular is a fascinating and incredibly rich history that has been passed down for centuries and in 2019, author Kwame Mbalia provided us with a piece of Young Adult literature titled Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. While not a primary source, this piece of children’s literature has provided me with an opportunity to both teach about a culture’s history and have a relatable piece of writing that my students can read and connect to.
Diverse Students and Families
While drastically different from the other two courses in many ways, Professor Stein’s Diverse Students and Families course also pushed me to analyze my thinking on a variety of different issues in education and do so from a more administrative perspective. At this point in my career, I have been far more focused on the classroom side of things and developing into the best educator that I can be rather than on any future goals of being in an administrative role, so this course was great for pushing me a little out of my comfort zone and analyzing some key issues in education from the perspective of a different school role. When I have thought about the ideas of having an inclusive community, I have often thought about it by making sure that I build relationships with my students, value their passions and interests, and create lessons based on content that is both relatable and a place they can see themselves. This course pushed me to more critically look at the fact that a strong school community goes far beyond the classroom and consider what the schools I have worked at and attended have done to foster that community and make sure that it is a welcoming place for all who are trying to learn and better themselves.
The most rewarding experience that I got from Professor Stein’s Diverse Students and Families course though, was a collaborative action project that I did with one of my friends and colleagues. In order to complete the collaborative action project for this course, I had two long, recorded conversations/interviews with my friend and colleague where we looked at some of the various issues that she has seen in her school. These conversations taught me a lot because I was able to get insight into the inner workings of her school, what the staff there was focused on, what the administration was focused on, what the student body was focused on, and how those different ideas and desires both intersected and conflicted with each other. Arguably the biggest idea to come out of our conversations is that far too often, stakeholders in a school are not on the same page and when that happens, conflicts arise and it is the administration's goal to try to make the school into a cohesive, unified group with a common mission rather than what can come across as an “us versus them” mentality.
The three courses that I chose to write about here just begin to scratch the surface of the numerous ways that my practice and thinking about education have been challenged and pushed forward in this program. As a whole, the courses that I took through Michigan State’s Master of Arts in Education program built upon and with one another to create an experience that truly feels like it has taken my teaching and ideas about education to a new level. Whether it be ways to create a more accessible and culturally inclusive learning environment for my students, learning about ways to work with administration and the community I work in outside of the school walls, developing new strategies and techniques for engaging lessons, or simply thinking more critically about common ideas in the world of education, this programs has been one of my most enjoyable learning experiences. I look forward to continuing to develop and build upon the knowledge that I learned in this program and applying it to further grow as an educator and get closer to truly mastering my craft.