Below are descriptions of courses I have taken in the Master of Arts in Education program through Michigan State University.
This class marked the beginning of my degree program, the first class I had taken in almost 27 years, and my first experience with online learning. I quickly became familiar with Google docs, Wikis, working with a new laptop, and replying to my fellow classmates who lived in places as far afield as North Carolina to Hawaii. Adie was wonderful, and encouraged me in my trepidation. I learned what Action Research was, how to go about it, and what types of action research might benefit me in the classroom. The most significant piece of this class was reading the book, "Mindset", by Carol Dweck, and its analysis of a fixed versus a growth mindset. My action research project posed the question, "Do growth-minded strategies improve motivation in the math classroom?"
ED 800 was a great review of the history of education in America, from Socrates to Dewey to present day. This class required a lot of reading, which I discovered was difficult for me to do on the computer. I struggled between reading online, and printing off PDFs to use a paper copy. I also had not written many papers in my 27 year haitus, and they were a struggle for me. For this class I wrote my rough drafts in notebooks, then modified on the computer. Content wise, the most significant part of this class was the introduction of Howard Gardner and his Project Zero work. It was and is fascinating to me, and in my quest to learn more I discovered the vast amount of material available online through educational sites. Reading Vivien Paley's work and her keen introspections inspired me to begin a journal about my school day, what I had done that day, and what I hoped to do in the future.
My first year teaching full time after a 25 year "break" was at a new school with only 12 students. We all wore many hats, and mine was both math and biology teacher. I had never taught biology before, and gained much from this class. With the online structure of the class I had the benefit of learning from a community of science teachers that I did not have at my school. I first learned of the standards and benchmarks of science education, from which I based my curriculum. I studied best practices for teaching and how to develop effective assessments in the science classroom. I began to understand what it means to understand! The website, "A Private Universe" made me realize how tenacious wrong thinking can be to eradicate from the minds of my students.
This class made me aware of the importance of reading skills in math classes; that if a student struggles with reading, they will also struggle with story problems, reading their textbook, etc. I learned the difference between phonics, phonemes, and phonetics, oh my! I struggled myself with the reading material that was rife with acronyms, none of them familiar to me. This made me sensitive to others that might not feel comfortable with the terms mathematicians use casually. The biggest benefit I took from this class is the importance of vocabulary instruction as a part of my daily lessons, and how critical it is for me, as teacher, to use the explicit terms in my instruction. I also learned that the student is always right. If they do not succeed, then I have not yet found the correct method.
This course made me aware of several different content standards, including the Common Core State Standards, and helped me to focus on these standards when developing the math curriculum for my new school. I first became aware of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, became a member, and began to benefit from their Illuminations website (which contains lessons for learning with discovery) and their publication. I also skyped for the first time! I was quite nervous, but Kevin was always patient and understanding. I began to integrate the TI-85 graphing calculator more in my lessons, knowing that the more I used it (and other technology) the more comfortable I would be with it. I recorded several classes to analyze exactly what I said in class and how my students responded. This class opened up a world of technology to me to supplement my practice.
This class began with me reflecting on my own "math story"; what was my experience, and how has it effected my life as a mathematician. It is something that I now begin every year asking of my students: what is your math story? I pondered the question, "Is technology essential to math education? What defines true understanding in math? How can technology assist in bringing my students to full, relational understanding?" I created a tech page filled with 20 online resources for math education, with a brief explanation of each source. In creating this resource I discovered many sites that I use regularly in my practice.
Simply put, I loved this class! After several classes focusing on the nuts and bolts of both science and math education, I enjoyed the more humanistic side of this course that focused on the psychology of the learner. At the time I took this class I struggled with several students who were underperfomers, had math anxiety, and resorted at times to cheating. This class helped me to discern why certain behaviors were occuring, and the best practices to change attitudes for the better. I did an analysis on one student and discovered that cheating is often an act of desparation. This realization helped change my own attitude about the student, and made me sensitive to the struggles that many students have in mathematics. I always seemed to be talking about what I was learning and reading in this class to my fellow teachers! I hope to re-read soon both, "Motivation to Learn" by Deborah Stipek, and "Motivating Students to Learn" by Jere Brophy. Both excellent books!
This course is required for my professional certification, to fulfill the undergraduate reading requirement that was not in place when I graduated in 1983. I did not want to take it as I thought, "Why does a math teacher need two reading courses?" Little did I know how much it would influence my practice. We jumped right in discussing the problem of adolescent literacy rates in our country, and how deficient our graduating high school seniors are in those skills. I became a believer that if I am to create lifelong learners, I needed to not only teach math skills every day, I needed to teach my students how to read their math textbooks to become self-learners. I began to write study guides for my math lessons, focus on how to utilize all the information given in the text, and how to read secondary sources for math help. The objective on my resume, to create students who think, act, and inquire like mathematicians is a direct result of this class.
This class focused on the best practices of teachers in creating learning environments that fufill the students' basic psychological needs of connectedness, competence, and contribution. Using the texts, Comprehansive Classroom Management by Jones and Jones, and CHAMPS, A Proactive & Positive Approach to Classroom Management by Randy Sprick, I learned that an organized classroom with rules, procedures and expectations clearly stated creates an environment where students are on-task and can achieve their greatest potential.
Summer 2014
Matthew Koehler, Joshua Rosenberg, Spencer Greenhaigh, and Brittany Dillman
My Capstone Project; this e-portfolio that contains my resume, samples of my work, and synthesis essays, is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how I have developed as an educator throughout my degree program. It has been an awesome and humbling experience to acknowledge all I have learned these last four years! I am inspired to never stop learning, but always seek new opportunities for growth and professional development.