A Synthesis​

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            Although I’ve gone through my share of shy phases, I have always been a fairly confident person. Confident in myself and my abilities, and confident in my direction in life. With that confidence came an assurance of exactly the kind of teacher I wanted to be, and exactly which subjects I would choose to specialize in. Since I was young, I was a reader. My parents read to me daily, and I began reading myself at a young age. I loved books of all kinds, from the most adventurous fiction, to nonfiction on endangered species. There was a long period of time when I planned to author and illustrate my own books and series, and even began planning and drafting a few. I had a notebook full of poems and story ideas that I would carry around with me, never sure when I might get my next idea. 

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            By the time I got to college and needed to declare a specialization within my elementary education degree, I didn’t need to think twice about it. My choice had been so clear from the beginning – Language Arts. Hand in hand with my love of language, minoring in TESOL (Teaching Speakers of Other Languages), made the perfect pair. Although I did get a variety of courses and topics through Michigan State University’s teaching program, my course focus centered around how we communicate our ideas with others through reading, writing, speaking, and listening, which has been valuable in so many ways. So, when it came time to begin my master’s courses, my declaration of focus remained confident – Literacy.

 

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            Michigan State’s teaching program is set up so that the first few of your master’s courses are taken during your teaching internship year, and I loved that I was able to continue to learn and refine my craft as I developed into the teacher I aimed to be. In the second half of that year however, I ran into a class that for the first time, scared me. This course was called TE (Teacher Education) 803: Professional Roles and Teaching Practice II. It’s focus as I soon found out, was Social Studies. 

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            Although I by no means disliked Social Studies – in fact I voluntarily took Advanced Placement American and European History classes in high school – it was always more of an interest, and never really my strong suit. Even then, I liked the History aspect of the subject, because it seemed to me to be a story; a story of the past. Just like the books that I loved to read, I found these “stories” fascinating. But History is not the only branch of Social Studies, and I soon found that this course put me wildly out of my comfort zone. The main project for this course was developing and teaching a complete Social Studies unit. Up until that point, I had never taught this subject before, a realization that dropped nerves to the pit of my stomach. Not only that, but the unit that was coming up for my fourth and fifth grade multiage class was Economics, a topic that I was far from confident in or knowledgeable about. I had never felt more uncertain about teaching before, and that was extremely unsettling. 

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            As I began planning out my Economics unit, I realized that I myself was learning new content. I found that I was figuring out ways to understand these concepts that had always been difficult for me. I discovered ways to explain and practice the content in a format and through activities that I could relate to and enjoy. A month later when I began teaching my unit, I realized that I was having fun.I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t long before Social Studies became one of my favorite parts of the day. It became a subject that I loved to teach and loved to talk about. I liked how relatable it could be, for any child of my 51 upper elementary students, who all came from such diverse households. I loved that I could present this subject to my students in a way that made them want to find out more. 

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            Because the first few courses I took for my master’s degree were part of my teaching internship year, it was years before my next graduate class. I had Literacy courses in my schedule of course, but was able to choose some elective classes as well. One of these elective courses was CEP (Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education) 802: Developing Positive Attitudes Toward Learning. This course was specifically focused on student motivation. I chose this class because I believe that how you present yourself as a teacher and manage your classroom is just as important as the content you teach. A good teacher may have all of the information, but a great teacher can also inspire. Through this course, I was hoping to gain a better sense of how to reach and inspire even the toughest of kids. 

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             This Positive Attitudes course divided motivation into three smaller subcategories: intrinsic, behavioral, and cognitive. Throughout the semester, we addressed all kinds of students, including their different mental approaches and ways that they think. My favorite part about the course though was that it included a case study. At the beginning of the semester, we were to select one student that seemed uninterested, or was otherwise showing signs of low motivation. Throughout the semester, we were able to apply course content to our case study, each week coming up with a plan to carry out for our child that directly applied to that week’s content. I loved that I was able to directly apply content in such a meaningful way, and see results! Not only did I find it fascinating to learn why some children think the way they do, and to notice patterns in their learning, but I felt like I was really helping my students as well. I left this course feeling as though I had really had a positive impact on not only my case study student, but others as well. 

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            It wasn’t long after I finished my course in student motivation that I was greatly impacted by another elective class. This course, CEP (Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education) 832: Educating Students with Challenging Behavior, changed the way that I looked at and approached the “tough kids”. Although I learned and adapted some great classroom management practices from my coordinating teachers in my internship year, there have been a few students I have encountered along the way that I feel I could have done better with. I always want to continue to learn and grow to better myself, but in the case where I am in charge of a classroom, I also want to learn and grow to better my students as well. I want to always provide my students with the best learning environment for them, and with the tools and attitude that will help them to best succeed, even on their most difficult days.

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            Like a few of my other courses, this class also consisted of a semester-long case study, which allowed me to directly put into practice course methods and strategies for one of my students. Throughout the course, we discussed many different types of behavior issues that children will come to you with. While every child is different, there are beneficial strategies that can be used to target and improve any type of behavior deficit. While I only did an official case study on one student, I found that the tools and information gained from this course have helped me work with a countless number of students, in both big and small ways. Not only did I learn effective strategies for approaching and working with tough kids, but I also learned a lot about myself as well. This course taught me that my own professional stance as a teacher can greatly impact how a child performs and acts in my classroom. Correcting my own behavior, no matter how subtle, is the first step in helping a child correct theirs. As one example, even something small such as reminding myself of a child’s positive characteristics, struggles, and accomplishments can go a long in helping maintain a positive and effective stance as a teacher. 

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            All my life, I have heard people talk of the benefits of trying new things. In my case, because I have always been a picky eater, it was usually related to trying new foods. In completing my master’s program however, trying new things and branching out of the norm has taken on a whole new meaning for me. A subject that I was scared to teach and thought I knew little about quickly became one of my favorites to work with. My elective classes that were not a required part of my program taught me that I have a passion and interest in something that I didn’t recognize before. In trying new things, I made new discoveries. These new things changed me. They changed how I approach teaching and the mindset I take on when working with my students. Because of these unexpected experiences, I have become a better teacher than I was before. The crazy part is that I didn’t plan for any of these things! Because of my specialization, I always assumed that I would be writing today about Literacy. Instead, in embracing the chances I was given, I found the greatest transformation of myself in the unexpected. About halfway through this reflection, I got hungry and reached for a Luna Protein Bar. Before I pulled it open, I checked the back of the wrapper, where the company prints some kind of inspirational quote. Today’s was: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”. Through this master’s program I have seen exactly that. It was through the new experiences and introduction to new content areas where I learned the most and was pushed the furthest as an educator. It has been the new and the unexpected where I have seen the most personal growth. And for that reason, this message could not have been more perfect.