In 2019, I began my career as a full time educator in a large school district in Michigan. I decided not to begin thinking about obtaining a master’s degree right away, as it was my first teaching job and I was overwhelmed by the thought of beginning teaching and participating in my own learning all at once. When the COVID-19 pandemic rocked our world, I began worrying about job security and money as an educator. That spring, I began thinking about how a master’s degree could help me keep my job doing what I love.
When I began applying to the Master of Arts in Education Program (MAED) at Michigan State University, I was asked to think about professional goals I have, and how MSU’s graduate program will help me meet my career and educational objectives. I thought long and hard as to what my professional goals were when entering this program, and to be completely transparent, my personal reasons for beginning the master’s program are now hard to admit. I knew having a master’s degree on my resume would help me gain respect from fellow colleagues and would help increase my salary in ways I knew I needed. I had never really thought about how obtaining a master’s degree would help me gain so much more insight, knowledge, and skills I would be able to carry on with me for my educational career forever.
When pushing those factors out of my mind and truly focusing on the importance of earning my master’s degree, I decided that my overall goal I hoped to accomplish by the end of the program was to focus on expanding my knowledge in literacy instruction and assessment. Since I was a young student, I have always had a love for learning and literacy. Now that I have become a first grade teacher, I realize that I can enhance my literacy instruction for my students immensely, with the help of a master’s degree.
After participating in a variety of literacy, assessment, and technology based courses throughout this program, my goal to become more knowledgeable in literacy instruction and assessment stayed consistent throughout the program. As a result, I am exiting it as an overall more knowledgeable and well-rounded educator. I have learned how to find my students strengths and weaknesses in literacy, how to successfully assess my students in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and even how to integrate technology into my every day teaching. The knowledge and skills I have accumulated from my time at the MAED program, have not only helped me to become a better educator for myself, but will help all of the little learners that join my classroom for years to come. While obtaining a master’s degree “looks good” on my resume and will help my salary increase, what I have learned in the MAED program at MSU is invaluable. An educators job is not only to help their students learn and grow, but also to make sure that they themselves are also learning, growing, and evolving as well. I am writing this today to hopefully inspire other people to further their education for the right reasons. I am hoping my transparency leaves the person reading this thinking about why they may be making the choice to enter a master's program. Sometimes decisions we make in furthering our education may prove our judgement is clouded or help us lose sight of what truly matters. While completing a master's degree may help you gain respect from colleagues or help your salary increase, those factors are not what matters the most in the long run. What matters the most is that you, as an educator, are bettering yourself and gaining knowledge you can use for a lifetime to contribute to society and help others.
As a competitive dancer for the majority of my life, I set goals often and strived to accomplish them. Some goals were as small as stretching enough to get my middle splits, or as large as winning first place in a solo competition. No matter how big or small my goals were, the feeling when I accomplished it remained the same: proud, happy, content, and an overall feeling of wanting to set more. Now that I am an adult and no longer dancing competitively, I continue setting goals in my personal life, but setting goals in more professional life is something that is new and exciting for me. As an educator, I encourage my students every day to set goals and strive to reach them. I am now focusing on bettering myself as an educator, and the first way to do that is to set goals just like my students.
My number one goal as an educator is to help my students grow and thrive as learners and as people. To help me do that, I have created three goals that will contribute to my ability to become a better educator for my students: Integrating Technology Into Everyday Curriculum, Digging Deeper Into Professional Development, & Learning to Lead in Literacy. Now that I have set these goals, it is my my responsibility to take the time to work on improving myself in these areas and continuing to strive to be the best educator I can be.
Integrating Technology Into Everyday Curriculum Before the COVID19 pandemic, technology was slowly being integrated into students’ every day learning lives. Fast forward to March of 2020, and our lives would be changed forever. Teachers and parents were faced with the harsh reality that our students would not be able to learn without one thing: technology. With the integration of technology both pre-pandemic and now, it is important for educators to understand how to use and integrate technology into the classroom. Since joining the Michigan State Master of Arts in Education program (MAED), I have participated in several courses that have given me ideas for integrating technology into the classroom. I plan on taking what I have learned from these courses, along with continuing to educate myself on technology integration in the classroom, to help my students and parents become more comfortable using it for learning. One program I look forward to exploring is called ed2go. This training would provide me with small, simple ways I could integrate technology into my every day classroom and my students every day learning experience.
Digging Deeper Into Professional Development I think that most educators could agree that sitting through professional development after a long day of school can feel draining. I can think of several instances where I was sitting in professional development meetings and all I could think about was my long “To-Do List” of tasks I needed to complete before the next school day. Now that I have spent so much time and effort diving deeper into my career throughout the MAED program, I have realized the impact professional development can have on myself, and in-turn, my students. When truly listening and focusing on what I can learn from professional development opportunities, I can take what I learned, reflect on it, make it something that can be effective for my students, and implement it. I have experienced SO much of my own learning from professional development, and will strive to take on more professional development opportunities to become a better educator. One program my district is learning about and implementing is called RULER. This program is a systematic approach that highlights the importance of Social Emotional Learning in Schools. I look forward to learning more about RULER because I feel it can help me understand my students better and help my students be able to recognize, understand, label, express, and regulate their feelings in a healthier, more effective way.
Learning to Lead in Literacy For the majority of my teaching career, I have strived in teaching math. I have spent countless hours organizing our math curriculum, reading and rereading it trying to find ways to teach it even better, and attending professional development seminars. Because of my confidence in teaching math, I have made it a goal of mine to learn to lead in literacy. Because literacy is not my strong suit, I am hoping to dive deeper into our Lucy Calkins Phonics, Reading, and Writing Units of Study, attend more literacy based professional development seminars, and become more organized in my small group literacy work.
Now that my graduate learning career is wrapping up, that does not mean my learning career is too. Like mentioned previously, there is no better feeling than making a goal, striving towards that goal, and accomplishing it. I have set these goals to ensure that I will continue to learn, even though I am no longer taking graduate level courses. My journey as an educator and learner will continue, and I am excited to see my students and myself grow and flourish.