Finding my Place in Teaching

MACT Synthesis Paper

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Curriculum and Teaching Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Lindsay Silver PID A35 95 3711 July 12, 2013

Finding My Place in Teaching

Almost every teacher goes into the profession because they want to make a difference in the lives of children. We may not all have the same experiences that lead to us becoming teachers but we all have a story to share. Mine is a familiar one, my mom is a teacher and I grew up watching her teach second grade. I wanted to be just like her and loved working with children, so I went into teaching. I was hired into the same district that I grew up in and where my mother still teaches, but I didnt want to be known as Barbs daughter; I wanted people to recognize my name for my accomplishments and not because of what my mom has done for the school district. I wanted to forge my own identity in Howell Public Schools and so I embarked on a journey with the MATC program.

Gaining experience with different learners Before I even started my teaching career or completed my student teaching, I knew I wanted to be unique and have experiences that others didnt. This is when my Masters program began, with my study abroad trip to Sydney, Australia. While there, I lived and went to school with a teacher. I experienced how education works in Australia's culture. While taking classes at Macquarie University, we studied the history of Australia and learned about their school systems. You will see the research I completed about the diversity of the culture and education program in Getting to Know the Classroom Using Ethnographic Tools- Australia (Artifact 2). For this assignment, I took an in depth look at an Accelerated English Class. I compiled observations from the class, interviewed the teacher, and analyzed the class and school structure. I learned new strategies to use in my future classroom and experienced working with different grade levels in another country.

Finding My Place in Teaching While in our placements, we taught lessons and collected information on teaching techniques, classroom management and curriculum. The school that I worked at was predominately aboriginal and I was able to experience their culture and connect with them on a level that I wouldnt have been able to do in the United States. I knew having this experience

and studying in Australia would forever change my life and my teaching career. It was amazing to see, as a teacher, the many ways in which teaching can happen. It was eye opening to see and experience the ways in which teaching happens in different countries. Although Bidwell School was thousands of miles away from my home here in Michigan, I found many similarities between the school systems and what it means to be a great teacher. This first experience in the MATC program laid a good foundation for my student teaching, which occurred a few months after I returned from Sydney.

Research and Inquiry After experiencing what it meant to be a great teacher across the world as well as here in Michigan during my student teaching, I knew it was time to put all I had learned to good use. This is when I started my research and inquiry into my practice through the assistance of my MATC classes. While completing my student teaching, I took TE 801, 802, 803 & 804, creating unit plans and learning strategies to teach each of the core subject areas. I was able to collaborate with another intern who student taught across the hallway from me. We created Poetry (Artifact 3) and Rocks and Soil (Artifact 4) unit plans together. Both unit plans were based on the GLCE for a 2nd grade classroom. They each provide students with an in depth look into both subject areas, while helping students make real world connections. My colleague and I spent valuable time researching strategies and different kinds of poetry to teach our students.

Finding My Place in Teaching Having the opportunity to collaborate with one of my colleagues was one of the most beneficial things I took away from my graduate classes and student teaching. It showed me how much more you can learn, accomplish and provide students by putting two heads together. I became a

better teacher by working with my colleague and also learned the value of collaboration, which I continue to seek out in my current teaching position. After completing two years of teaching, and changing from a kindergarten teacher to a 6th and 8th grade English teacher, I began taking classes again. One of my first classes was TE 807. In this class we completed an inquiry project, mine being a 7th grade Poetry unit (Artifact 9). This was my first real look into my practice. In TE 807, I learned that teachers spend a lot of time diving into their practice and looking for solutions to their problems in practice. It takes a lot of hard work, time and determination to become a great teacher. It doesnt just happen overnight. With this poetry unit plan, I learned how much work, time and determination it took to research and apply effective strategies to an area of curriculum in which my students were struggling. I found this research to be beneficial because I was new to the grade level and did not know a lot about 7th English curriculum as well as to the inquiry process. The inquiry process helped me to dive into the standards and analyze what I needed to teach my students. This inquiry project gave me other ideas for inquiry projects I could do with my teaching and also helped me to see what kinds of research and data collection tools are available to use while completing an inquiry project.

Applying strategies to practice As my journey continued in the middle school and in the MATC program, I found many opportunities to make inquiries into my practice, each time learning something new and useful. I

Finding My Place in Teaching started taking my concentration classes in Educational Technology and found the information I was learning to be extremely useful and applicable to my current teaching context. I wanted to

make learning exciting for my students and incorporate technology because they already knew so much about it and had a high interest. I knew if I could pique their interest with technology, the learning they would do would be amazing. I found myself to be invested in these classes because it is also an interest that I have. I have always been the one to experiment with technology, to be one of the first ones to try something new and share it with my colleagues, so these classes were right up my alley. During my three CEP classes, I was able to create many lessons, tools and resources for my students and myself on our journey to learn about and through technology. One of the most beneficial tools that I learned to create was a stand-alone instructional tool. What I created during my StAIR project (Artifact 6) was a tool that my students could use to help them access their email and Google Drive. By creating this tool, I learned how to use technology effectively and involve it in my teaching to benefit my current and future students. Even though the creation of the tool was time consuming, I learned that technology can turn concepts that were not concrete into something more tangible, more easily understood, for students. Once the tool was created it could be easily accessed for years to come, making teaching the process of using the technology easier. It also allowed for more time to be spent on teaching the content through technology. Prior to this stand-alone lesson, I spent a majority of my time teaching my students how to use their school e-mail account, access Google Drive and use some of its basic features to word process and create presentations instead of spending the time researching and learning the content. Now with this tool, the focus could shift back to what was important: the content knowledge.

Finding My Place in Teaching Out of all of my CEP classes, I grew most as an educator when I took CEP 812. This class seemed to take all of the cool things I had learned about technology in my other classes and analyze how I was teaching with technology. During this class, we completed a large inquiry project, The Wicked Problem Project (Artifact 5), in which we identified a difficult problem in our practices, came up with solutions for that problem, implemented them and reflected on the process. This inquiry project helped me grow as an educator because it pushed

me to look closer at the content, pedagogy and technology I was using in my classroom. We had previously learned about the TPack philosophy of integrating content knowledge, pedagogy, and technology together to hit the sweet spot. When the proper balance is found between these three components, it maximizes student learning and provides them with an optimal learning experience. I took most of my classes during the summer, so I didnt have an opportunity to use my previous inquiry projects with my students as I was completing them until the Wicked Problem Project. Through this project I discovered how to efficiently inquire into my practice, strategize and solve problems of practice. Another project that was completed in my CEP 812 class was a Flipped PD (Artifact 7) as part of a Group Leadership project. For this project I was assigned to a group with three other classmates. Our job was to come up with a technology and create a professional development presentation for it. Our group decided to do our presentation on the app Confer. I explained the app to my group because I had used it in my classroom for data collection. Everyone thought it was a very valuable tool and that every educator should know about it so we started on our presentation. Working with this group of people was a great experience. We all had different strengths that played into our final presentation. I completed the script because I knew the most

Finding My Place in Teaching

about the app, another created the presentation in Google Drive, another used their knowledge to turn our presentation into a video using Camtasia and the fourth was a great editor, so they polished our presentation. It was amazing to see how we could collaborate with the different technologies available to us. On two occasions we met using Google Hangout. This was a great tool to learn to use because now I can implement it in my teaching. When my students have group projects to work on they can use Google Hangout, similar to Skype, to communicate with one another. They can also record the session so that I can monitor that they are meeting the requirements of working as a group that I setup for them. I know after collaborating with these people on our Flipped PD, that we will be a valuable resource for one another in the future. We worked well together and gained a lot of knowledge from one another in the short time we worked together. We have planned to stay in touch and be a valuable part of each others Professional Learning Community. I continue to seek collaboration like this with my colleagues at school because I know how it can impact my teaching. At the end of CEP 812, we reflected on our growth and learning from the semester. You will see in my Professional Learning Plan (Artifact 8) the growth I made after taking the three CEP classes. In CEP 810, we completed a Professional Learning Plan to guide us towards our next steps of learning and growing as a teacher of technology. Then in CEP 812, we reflected on the goals we had previously set and created new ones for the future. As seen in my reflection, I met the goals that I set originally as well as set new goals for collaboration with my colleagues for next year, experimenting with new educational technologies, and integrating the TPack philosophy into my teaching. I feel that technology is one place where I can have the greatest impact because it is something I am passionate about and I enjoy using it alongside my students.

Finding My Place in Teaching

I have found that my passion for teaching lies in the use of technology and being able to integrate technology, pedagogy and content seamlessly. Finally, in the last semester of my program, one of the classes I took was TE 846. In this class, we took a closer look at reading instruction and the importance of teaching reading strategies to readers at all grade levels. We then completed a case study, Literacy Learner Profile (Artifact 1) on a struggling reader, for whom we provided one on one reading instruction. This class taught me how to take the reading strategies we were learning about in class and apply them to my teaching of individual students, small groups and the whole class. I was able to see the student growth and how they responded to the different interventions I was using with them. Even though I only worked with the student for a few short sessions, I could see how the theories and strategies help to improve the students reading ability. This class was very valuable and reinforced the ideas about teaching reading and writing to students that I had previously learned. It also gave me insights to new strategies and tools to use with my students as well as a place to start when working with struggling readers. I can now model these strategies in front of my students to show them what good readers do and what it looks and sounds like when a fluent reader reads and thinks about a text.

Seeking Professional Development Now as I reach the end of my program at Michigan State University, it is not the end of my learning but yet just a continuation of the journey to be the best teacher I can be. The program I am about to complete provided me with so many resources, strategies, research and tools to continue to use and explore with my teaching. As I go forward I plan to continue to grow as a teacher by seeking help from my newly formed Professional Learning Community,

Finding My Place in Teaching collaborate with other teachers in my school, district and around the country, and to continue integrating technology in a meaningful way into my classroom. MSU has provided me with all of these tools through my program. I would not know where to start growing as a teacher had it not been for my classes at MSU. I could have never gathered as much information, and met as many people that I could collaborate with.

So now with all of the information I have learned, I feel that I can start to make my place in the world of teaching and make my own impact with my students. I feel confident with the knowledge base that I have formed through my program to provide a sound education to my students as well as share what I have learned with my colleagues. I intend on getting more involved in my school and make a larger impact in the building and district. Now, I can begin to forge my own identity as an educator in Howell Public Schools.