Learn Long and Prosper - My Master's Journey
By Andrea Smock
I started this Master’s journey about four years ago. I was looking for a way to accomplish my continuing education in a way where I didn’t have to sit in a classroom every week until nine o’clock at night! A friend/colleague of mine was in the same position and she suggested that we look into taking online classes. MSU was top on that list and I will be honest…it was the top choice mostly because we found out we did NOT have to write a thesis…but instead would be creating a portfolio. At the time I really did not know what that meant, however, I knew that creating a portfolio seemed not only right up my alley, but also something that seemed more cutting edge and closer to something that I would actually want to do because it would be more beneficial to me. As I come to the end of my Master’s journey, I have been questioned by a few family members and friends about what is next in my journey or the main question everyone seems to ask is what have I learned over these past few years?
The first question I can actually answer with, I do not really know. I do not foresee going to school for my Doctorate right now, but I do not know what I will plan to do in the future. (Although if it were free, I do not mind doing to the work for it!) However, the second question about what have I learned is a something that I have asked myself over these years. I believe the Master’s programs at MSU are actually very well thought out and it seems like they have an idea about which direction education nowadays is going, which is very refreshing considering what the government tries to regulate at times! There have been plenty of classes that I have taken that if I look back on them I felt like I got something out of them/learned a thing or two. However, there are three courses that I have found to be the most stimulating, thought provoking, and educational throughout my three years in the MSU Master’s Program.
The first class that I found to be so beneficial to my learning was CEP 806 – Learning Science with Technology with Dr. Wong. I took this class my very first semester at MSU in the fall of 2010. I could tell that this class was a great way to start my online continuing education process. Dr. Wong had everything set up on the Angel course page; however, as a class we also were supposed to create a Facebook profile. This showed me that Dr. Wong was using a current form of communication such as the online Facebook communication. I thought that this was already such a unique experience for a classroom that I could not wait to get started. Using Facebook to communicate with my classmates, I felt that I was able to better communicate and everything was being presented in practically real time. We were able to respond on an online forum that most of the students were familiar with. Not only did I learn the concepts from that class that were being introduced each week, but I was able to familiarize myself with different technological notions that I did not know how to do before. And, because of this class being held in such an online and open forum, if I had questions, I was easily able to post my questions to Facebook and I would get feedback from the other students quite quickly.
In this class we were given different assignments that would help us to incorporate technology into not only our science classes, as the name of the course suggests, but also into other subjects that we may teach. There were numerous readings that we would complete each week. Because this program is held online, there are not any opportunities for the professors to lecture to us as in a traditional classroom setting. I felt that these readings, to me, seemed to correlate quite well with the assignment that was assigned with them. I did not feel that I was missing anything because there was not a lecture. Actually, I felt the opposite. I was able to read, reread, outline, and highlight different ideas from all of the reading because they were right there in front of me. Not only was having the articles in the online forum helpful, but I also was taught quite early on in my Master’s program how to access the MSU online student library. I learned how to find the different assigned articles, as well as, learned how to access articles of my choosing. I was thankful that this was actually taught in my first semester at MSU because it made searching for research for the rest of my classes throughout the years really stress-free.
The projects in this course were actually very interesting and related to me as a teacher. This was one class that I took throughout my Master’s Program that I actually took the different projects and adapted them to my seventh and eighth grade classroom. We had three inquiry projects that we completed throughout the course. The first inquiry project I did was to research how students completed research for a project/topic that was given to them. Since we were learning about cells at the time in my class, I gave the students the assignment to research anything about cells. I then created a PowerPoint presentation to exhibit my findings. After this I actually had my students create something similar by presenting their cell research to the class using PowerPoint. They were to focus, as I did, on which websites gave the most accurate information and was presented in an appealing way.
Another assignment that I completed in this course was called Tower Building. I had to create a tower using different materials that could be found in the classroom. The concept of this project could be used in my classroom too. However, the main component of this project was completed with a partner, online! My partner and I met on Skype and took pictures and chatted while we completed the project. I loved this idea and again it opened my eyes to different ways to think about my teaching. This showed me that I am not limited to my classroom when it comes to interacting with my students and with my students interacting with other students.
Another class that I think was a foundation for my Master’s program was CEP 882 – Seminar in CEP, also with Dr. Wong. CEP stands for Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education. I do not have a degree in any of those fields specifically but I took the class thinking about my school that is full-inclusion. The main project was called our “Work of Art” project. We were to create or research a work of art that was compelling to us. I chose to create my work of art focusing on the art of teaching. This project really made me look in depth into the way I taught my classroom. I chose to focus my project using Elliot Eisner’s concept of a compelling experience for a student in a classroom environment. I credit this class with making me really look at how I interact and teach my students in my classroom. After this class I made sure to watch how I interacted with my students. I made sure I let my students interact with new material in a way that was useful to them. I try to make sure that my students are learning something in a way that will make them interested in what they are learning.
The last class that really made an impact on me throughout my Master’s Program is TE 849 Methods and Materials for Teaching Children’s and Adolescent’s Literature with Professor Bevin Roue. This class really spoke to my love of literature, especially children’s literature. My Bachelor degree major was actually Language Arts and my first few years of teaching was teaching exclusively Reading and Writing. As the title suggests, I learned different ways to teach literature to my students as well as learning about different materials to introduce to my students.
I think one of the most compelling concepts of this class, and one that I learned so much from, was just the many ways that literature can speak to someone. I also learned so much because this class focused more on me as a reader, instead of me as a teacher of reading. This actually was really difficult to break myself away from my teacher role and to look at myself as a reader! But, I think the whole point of this class was to show me that it is important to learn about reading concepts myself without thinking of how to teach these concepts first. It is important because once I understand myself as a reader; I will be able to adequately teach my students about reading.
My favorite assignment that made me really think of myself as a reader with such depth was my Literature Autobiography. This assignment made me look back on my life and how literature played a role in my life. This assignment made me relate more with my students because I really could not think of a time when I really read while I was in elementary school. I realized that I really have the job to encourage my students to read by showing them books that I loved, since most of the books I read are young adult literature.
Throughout this course I was introduced to different types of literature and was introduced to different techniques that I can use in my classroom. Two main concepts that I learned about were poetry and multicultural literature. These two kinds of literature I think were really underutilized in my classroom. I learned that it is important to understand the real dimensions of multicultural literature before teaching about it. This seems like a logical statement but I quickly learned that just because you read something that is presented as part of a culture, it does not necessarily fall under multicultural literature. Learning about a different cultures in literature, not only helped me understand different cultures and why it is important for me to know about them, but it also helped me to learn that my students all come from different
backgrounds and should also learn about people from other backgrounds.
In this course I also learned about different genres of literature and was able to compare a story presented in these different genres. I read Coraline as a novel and a graphic novel, as well as watched the movie. I compared these three versions and picked out important concepts and reasons why the story was presented in these three different ways. I credit this assignment with my looking at different teaching strategies in a whole new way. If the same story can be told in three different ways, I should be able to modify my teaching strategies in different ways in order to interest and educate all of my students.
In all, I credit both of these professors, Dr. Wong and Professor Roue in really sparking my interest in their classes. They presented their information in a way that was not only easy to understand but I found to be highly beneficial. That’s what education should be, right? Education should be something that is worthwhile and beneficial to the student. Both of these professors made me feel like they were only there to teach their students and to make sure they succeeded. Not only did I learn from the material that was taught it their courses, I learned from them as teachers themselves.
So, to answer the question, “What have you learned in your Master’s Program?” I would have to say…a lot! I learned that it is important to continue learning as a teacher because it is important to stay up-to-date with how my students are learning. I learned new concepts and ideas to incorporate into my teaching style and I learned new strategies to engage my students in all subject areas. I also learned that online education is something that I think is very beneficial to my way of learning. So, even though I may not be pursuing my Doctorate any time soon, I do plan to continue my education in the future because the teaching profession is ever-changing and I want to be the more efficient and prestigious teacher I can be!
Learn long and prosper!
Spock image taken from: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/live-long-and-prosper-anastasiya-malakhova.html
I started this Master’s journey about four years ago. I was looking for a way to accomplish my continuing education in a way where I didn’t have to sit in a classroom every week until nine o’clock at night! A friend/colleague of mine was in the same position and she suggested that we look into taking online classes. MSU was top on that list and I will be honest…it was the top choice mostly because we found out we did NOT have to write a thesis…but instead would be creating a portfolio. At the time I really did not know what that meant, however, I knew that creating a portfolio seemed not only right up my alley, but also something that seemed more cutting edge and closer to something that I would actually want to do because it would be more beneficial to me. As I come to the end of my Master’s journey, I have been questioned by a few family members and friends about what is next in my journey or the main question everyone seems to ask is what have I learned over these past few years?
The first question I can actually answer with, I do not really know. I do not foresee going to school for my Doctorate right now, but I do not know what I will plan to do in the future. (Although if it were free, I do not mind doing to the work for it!) However, the second question about what have I learned is a something that I have asked myself over these years. I believe the Master’s programs at MSU are actually very well thought out and it seems like they have an idea about which direction education nowadays is going, which is very refreshing considering what the government tries to regulate at times! There have been plenty of classes that I have taken that if I look back on them I felt like I got something out of them/learned a thing or two. However, there are three courses that I have found to be the most stimulating, thought provoking, and educational throughout my three years in the MSU Master’s Program.
The first class that I found to be so beneficial to my learning was CEP 806 – Learning Science with Technology with Dr. Wong. I took this class my very first semester at MSU in the fall of 2010. I could tell that this class was a great way to start my online continuing education process. Dr. Wong had everything set up on the Angel course page; however, as a class we also were supposed to create a Facebook profile. This showed me that Dr. Wong was using a current form of communication such as the online Facebook communication. I thought that this was already such a unique experience for a classroom that I could not wait to get started. Using Facebook to communicate with my classmates, I felt that I was able to better communicate and everything was being presented in practically real time. We were able to respond on an online forum that most of the students were familiar with. Not only did I learn the concepts from that class that were being introduced each week, but I was able to familiarize myself with different technological notions that I did not know how to do before. And, because of this class being held in such an online and open forum, if I had questions, I was easily able to post my questions to Facebook and I would get feedback from the other students quite quickly.
In this class we were given different assignments that would help us to incorporate technology into not only our science classes, as the name of the course suggests, but also into other subjects that we may teach. There were numerous readings that we would complete each week. Because this program is held online, there are not any opportunities for the professors to lecture to us as in a traditional classroom setting. I felt that these readings, to me, seemed to correlate quite well with the assignment that was assigned with them. I did not feel that I was missing anything because there was not a lecture. Actually, I felt the opposite. I was able to read, reread, outline, and highlight different ideas from all of the reading because they were right there in front of me. Not only was having the articles in the online forum helpful, but I also was taught quite early on in my Master’s program how to access the MSU online student library. I learned how to find the different assigned articles, as well as, learned how to access articles of my choosing. I was thankful that this was actually taught in my first semester at MSU because it made searching for research for the rest of my classes throughout the years really stress-free.
The projects in this course were actually very interesting and related to me as a teacher. This was one class that I took throughout my Master’s Program that I actually took the different projects and adapted them to my seventh and eighth grade classroom. We had three inquiry projects that we completed throughout the course. The first inquiry project I did was to research how students completed research for a project/topic that was given to them. Since we were learning about cells at the time in my class, I gave the students the assignment to research anything about cells. I then created a PowerPoint presentation to exhibit my findings. After this I actually had my students create something similar by presenting their cell research to the class using PowerPoint. They were to focus, as I did, on which websites gave the most accurate information and was presented in an appealing way.
Another assignment that I completed in this course was called Tower Building. I had to create a tower using different materials that could be found in the classroom. The concept of this project could be used in my classroom too. However, the main component of this project was completed with a partner, online! My partner and I met on Skype and took pictures and chatted while we completed the project. I loved this idea and again it opened my eyes to different ways to think about my teaching. This showed me that I am not limited to my classroom when it comes to interacting with my students and with my students interacting with other students.
Another class that I think was a foundation for my Master’s program was CEP 882 – Seminar in CEP, also with Dr. Wong. CEP stands for Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education. I do not have a degree in any of those fields specifically but I took the class thinking about my school that is full-inclusion. The main project was called our “Work of Art” project. We were to create or research a work of art that was compelling to us. I chose to create my work of art focusing on the art of teaching. This project really made me look in depth into the way I taught my classroom. I chose to focus my project using Elliot Eisner’s concept of a compelling experience for a student in a classroom environment. I credit this class with making me really look at how I interact and teach my students in my classroom. After this class I made sure to watch how I interacted with my students. I made sure I let my students interact with new material in a way that was useful to them. I try to make sure that my students are learning something in a way that will make them interested in what they are learning.
The last class that really made an impact on me throughout my Master’s Program is TE 849 Methods and Materials for Teaching Children’s and Adolescent’s Literature with Professor Bevin Roue. This class really spoke to my love of literature, especially children’s literature. My Bachelor degree major was actually Language Arts and my first few years of teaching was teaching exclusively Reading and Writing. As the title suggests, I learned different ways to teach literature to my students as well as learning about different materials to introduce to my students.
I think one of the most compelling concepts of this class, and one that I learned so much from, was just the many ways that literature can speak to someone. I also learned so much because this class focused more on me as a reader, instead of me as a teacher of reading. This actually was really difficult to break myself away from my teacher role and to look at myself as a reader! But, I think the whole point of this class was to show me that it is important to learn about reading concepts myself without thinking of how to teach these concepts first. It is important because once I understand myself as a reader; I will be able to adequately teach my students about reading.
My favorite assignment that made me really think of myself as a reader with such depth was my Literature Autobiography. This assignment made me look back on my life and how literature played a role in my life. This assignment made me relate more with my students because I really could not think of a time when I really read while I was in elementary school. I realized that I really have the job to encourage my students to read by showing them books that I loved, since most of the books I read are young adult literature.
Throughout this course I was introduced to different types of literature and was introduced to different techniques that I can use in my classroom. Two main concepts that I learned about were poetry and multicultural literature. These two kinds of literature I think were really underutilized in my classroom. I learned that it is important to understand the real dimensions of multicultural literature before teaching about it. This seems like a logical statement but I quickly learned that just because you read something that is presented as part of a culture, it does not necessarily fall under multicultural literature. Learning about a different cultures in literature, not only helped me understand different cultures and why it is important for me to know about them, but it also helped me to learn that my students all come from different
backgrounds and should also learn about people from other backgrounds.
In this course I also learned about different genres of literature and was able to compare a story presented in these different genres. I read Coraline as a novel and a graphic novel, as well as watched the movie. I compared these three versions and picked out important concepts and reasons why the story was presented in these three different ways. I credit this assignment with my looking at different teaching strategies in a whole new way. If the same story can be told in three different ways, I should be able to modify my teaching strategies in different ways in order to interest and educate all of my students.
In all, I credit both of these professors, Dr. Wong and Professor Roue in really sparking my interest in their classes. They presented their information in a way that was not only easy to understand but I found to be highly beneficial. That’s what education should be, right? Education should be something that is worthwhile and beneficial to the student. Both of these professors made me feel like they were only there to teach their students and to make sure they succeeded. Not only did I learn from the material that was taught it their courses, I learned from them as teachers themselves.
So, to answer the question, “What have you learned in your Master’s Program?” I would have to say…a lot! I learned that it is important to continue learning as a teacher because it is important to stay up-to-date with how my students are learning. I learned new concepts and ideas to incorporate into my teaching style and I learned new strategies to engage my students in all subject areas. I also learned that online education is something that I think is very beneficial to my way of learning. So, even though I may not be pursuing my Doctorate any time soon, I do plan to continue my education in the future because the teaching profession is ever-changing and I want to be the more efficient and prestigious teacher I can be!
Learn long and prosper!
Spock image taken from: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/live-long-and-prosper-anastasiya-malakhova.html