Crossing the Finish Line: Master of Arts in Education
Since May 2014, I have accumulated 30 credits, equating to ten graduate courses, to complete my Master of Arts in Education degree. Below you will find information about each of the classes I took, as well as see actual assignments I have completed in these courses.
Summer 2014
ED 800: Concepts of Educational Inquiry - Dr. Steven Weiland
ED 800 was a course where I took a journey through education and what it has meant in the past and today. I journeyed through what education meant for other educators and this allowed me to take a more in depth look at what education means for me. I studied the ideas of educational philosophers such as John Dewey, E.D. Hirsh, and Catherine Bateson. Studying the ways other view education and reflecting upon their ideas and my own helped me to become more aware of myself as an educator. After reading Gardner's The Disciplined Mind, I reflected on how Gardner was more than a theorist on multiple intelligences. I was able to investigate Gardner's virtues of teaching, specifically "beauty and goodness", to reflect on key themes this course and book covered. |
TE 842: Elementary Reading Assessment Instruction - Dr. Amber Meyer
TE 842 focused on the assessment and teaching of reading at the elementary school level. Throughout this course I learned about the breakdown of teaching reading in the elementary level including comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge, word identification, and a reader's motivation. After taking this course I had a fuller picture of what elements a balanced literacy program should include and how to reflect and assess reading in my classroom in order to drive instruction. Reading assessments are so valuable and this course has enlightened me with the variety of assessments that can be used and how well we can get to know a student by analyzing the collected data. |
Fall 2014
TE 846: Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners - Dr. Patricia Edwards
TE 846 was designed to learn more about teaching the basics of reading. It taught me how to assess and create interventions for struggling literacy learners based on best practices in literacy and evidence based interventions. I completed a case study on one struggling learner and I developed lessons and assessment pieces to interpret the data. I saw the way that a struggling learner can improve with the right interventions. From this course I'm able to better analyze students in my classroom and adjust lessons so that all types of students find mastery in first grade skills. |
Spring 2015
CEP 832: Educating Students with Challenging Behaviors - Dr. Evelyn Oka
CEP 832 focused on the characteristics of different students with challenging behaviors and interventions for teaching these students. I learned about how many different types of challenging behaviors there are and narrowed in on a specific one most difficult for me professionally. This course allowed for a great deal of self-reflection of how you currently manage challenging students and when your effective teaching stance is strongest and weakest. I completed a project based on the challenging behaviors of a student I currently teach. I devised an intervention plan for this student, collected data, and evaluated the effectiveness of this intervention plan. I focused on one child in my first grade classroom with Sensory Processing Disorder and incorporated new accommodation techniques to increase my effective teaching stance with him and improve his on-task behaviors. |
Summer 2015
CEP 883: Psychology of Classroom Discipline - Dr. My T. Lien
CEP 883 explored the many different aspects of classroom management. I learned about the difference and value of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations within the classroom and was able to use these distinctions immediately in my second grade classroom. Throughout this course I deeply reflected on my own classroom management practices, continuing to improve my classroom climate. In my classroom management plan project I was able to reflect on my personal classroom management practices, incorporating new techniques and strategies to continue improving my classroom environment. |
TE 848: Writing Assessment Instruction - Dr. Janine Certo
TE 848 explored writing theory, research, and pedagogy. It also dedicated lessons to writing processes, strategies, assessments, and environments where I learned how to instruct diverse writers. The course also gave me the opportunity to work with a variety of genres including expository, narrative, and poetic genres. Prewriting, composing, revising, editing, and publishing. My "Writing in the Content Areas" project included research about expository writing in first grade classrooms. I discussed the logic behind this genre choice and included instructional practices to achieve skill mastery. |
Fall 2015
CEP 818: Creativity in Teaching and Learning - Dr. Punya Mishra, Carmen Richardson
In this course, I gained perspective about the value and relevance of creativity in education. I practiced recognizing, analyzing, and supporting creativity in multiple contexts through the focus on a project regarding the weather, a first grade science standard. I took this weather unit curriculum and analyzed the way it could be taught with a "creative twist" - using the five senses. By incorporating a new perspective on this weather unit, students are exposed to a psychological, motivational, and organizational aspects of creativity. My eyes were opened during many each week's focus to understand how learners interpret lessons and ways to best teach all learners - a vital lesson when teaching in today's classrooms. |
Spring 2016
CEP 817: Learning Technology Through Design - Dr. Punya Mishra, Dr. Carmen Richardson
This course included the design of educational tools and software to create best-fit practices for my classroom. The project for this course, "Problem of Practice" involved taking a closer look at an area in my instruction that I believe could be improved. I chose to focus on active engagement in reading workshop. To redesign my lessons, I analyzed, participated the ideate process, prototyped, and held discussions among colleagues. I was presented with some "out of the box" lessons during this course. which was then applied, to my own design process for the course project. |
Summer 2016
CEP 811: Adapting Innovative Technology to Education - Dr. Amy Pietrowski
This technology course explored the application of instructional principles and methods to educational problems in the K-12 classroom. I was presented with many new technologies that are associated with 21st Century Learning and the Maker Movement. These new technology concepts are innovative approaches to education and gave me the opportunity to create common core related lessons as well as the chance to redesign my classroom through SketchUp all for the benefit of today's classroom learners. This course introduced me to many new technology-related lessons that have broadened my perspective in developing my own lessons. I gained the mentality that "it's okay to fail" during this course and plan to express this mindset to young learners. |
ED 870: Capstone Seminar - Dr. Matthew Koehler
ED 870 was designed to create a professional portfolio of all of the work I have done in my masters program. This course provided me with the opportunity and knowledge to showcase what I have done, reflect on what I have learned, and to show others what I learned on my journey through my Master's program. It involved working with new web site tools and learning new technologies. This course has given me many opportunities to reflect on what types of work I've accomplished during my program and recognize the growth I've made as a student, as well as a teacher. I understand the value in feedback, small changes, and communicating with peers to better myself professionally. |
All images and photo credits: Anna Collins/Creative Commons