SYNTHESIS
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At the dawn of my graduate school journey, I was contemplating a career change. After a decade as a homeroom teacher, I was ready for a new challenge. I spent a lot of time considering how to best combine my love for teaching with curriculum development, technology, and peer collaboration, to evolve my career. Throughout this process of reflection, I learned that according to the U.S. Department of Labor, 65% of today’s children will end up working in a job that has yet to be invented. While exploring the ways teachers were supporting student learning to prepare them for that staggering statistic, I found the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University. Little did I know at the time how much this program was about to change my future.
From Then to Now: A Master's Program Pilgrimage
At the close of 2015, I fearlessly dove into the program by signing up for CEP 810, Teaching for Understanding with Technology. For my first assignment, I wrote a research essay titled The Evolution of Learning. I stated, “As twenty-first century educators, it’s important for us to remain in continuous dialogue about how children best learn and how we prepare them for their futures. The work adults are required to do in the workplace has become more abstract than routine. To prepare students for their futures, we need to teach them to think critically, collaborate, and apply what they’ve learned in new situations.” From that first assignment to today, the work I have done through the MAET program has prepared me to support my students as they become powerful digital-age thinkers.
While taking CEP 810, we discussed the importance of an ever-growing Professional Learning Network (PLN) to stay abreast of what is new and next in education. My PLN consists of my former and current colleagues, the inspirational trailblazers I follow on social media, and the technology leaders from whom I learn alongside of when I regularly attend professional development. Through research and discussions with my Michigan State classmates, I became intrinsically charged to expand my PLN. I began to see every conference as an opportunity to network and establish meaningful connections with other educators. While at the EdTechTeacher Innovation Summit in San Diego, I connected with talented Learning Experience Designers from Design39 and maker guru Sylvia Martinez. After building relationships, I was able to orchestrate inviting these accomplished educators to the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools to speak for faculty professional development. Connecting with these teachers, all wholeheartedly invested in Maker Education, ignited a fire inside me to mold students into active makers.
According to Common Sense Media, kids spend 64% of their time consuming content, 26% communicating, and 3% creating content. CEP 811, Adapting Innovative Technologies in Education, was one of my favorite courses in the MAET program, because it truly provided me the skillset to help my students become complex problem solvers and makers. With a focus on Maker Education, each assignment in this class inspired me to think of new ways to help my students move from consumers of technology to creators of content. One example of this is when I was charged to combine Scratch with MakeyMakey to teach math. This really pushed me to think outside of the box and reimagine teaching in a way that was both engaging and hands-on for young learners. The reimagination of curriculum can be seen across my teaching practice. Whether it be through virtual museums or green screens, I am continually striving to engage my students in the process of learning by encouraging them to be creators. In addition to learning new teaching strategies in CEP 811, I researched classroom design and environments in which students learn best, which drew me to flexible learning spaces and collaborative workstations. I used Google Sketchup to redesign my dream classroom digitally before physically making the transformation. Furthermore, I was energized to begin the journey to create a MakerSpace for Lab’s Lower School. By encouraging me to examine how I teach and the learning environments where my students learn, CEP 811 inspired a powerful development of my teaching practice.
Where CEP 811 appealed to the part of me that likes working independently, CEP 812, Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice, taught me the importance of creating a collaborative culture of participation in order to facilitate meaningful change. With a small group of my classmates, I used a variety of technological tools to examine and brainstorm solutions for wicked problems in education. We tackled the wicked problem of innovation as learning ethic and concluded that in order to prepare students for their futures, the focus of education must shift away from teacher-centered learning toward problem-based learning, wherein students use technology as a tool to solve problems collaboratively.
Seymour Papert said, “Every maker of video games knows something that the makers of curriculum don't seem to understand. You'll never see a video game being advertised as being easy. Kids who do not like school will tell you it's not because it's too hard. It's because it's--boring.” Many traditional school environments are boring and not structured to prepare students for a world where they will personally be in charge of making intelligent and impromptu decisions every single day. In the workplace, there is a lot of personal responsibility - nobody tells you exactly how to do your job or precisely how long to work on a task. Yet, that’s how students are taught to produce work. CEP 811 and CEP 812 challenged me to think about the way teachers are teaching and adapt engaging methodologies that will better prepare children for a life outside of the classroom. Making. Tinkering. Building. Designing. No matter the name, the process provides kids opportunities to explore problems collaboratively, experience failure, build resilience, and celebrate successes - this mimics life in the real world.
In addition to learning practical classroom applications, the MAET program provided me opportunities to analyze educational research. In CEP 800, Learning in School and Other Settings, I researched a variety of psychological perspectives that make learning complete. By evaluating case studies, I learned how students process information differently. This prepared me to better support a variety of learning styles. A book I read in this course that had a real impact on my life professionally and personally was The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg. After being charged with breaking one of my own habits, I better understand how learners synthesize information. And in CEP 822, Approaches to Educational Research, I learned how to review published studies on education. To begin, I was taught methods for collecting and interpreting data using Excel. Then, after learning how to critique reports, I chose to research if homework should or should not be assigned. To do this, I analyzed scholarly articles that showed the advantages and disadvantages of providing elementary students with homework. I compared their methods for data collection, populations surveyed, and findings. Thereafter, I created a research literature review with implications for my own practice. CEP 800 and CEP 822 helped me to develop a strong foundation for the theoretical understandings of why, how, and when to integrate technology to benefit student learning.
Halfway through my MAET journey, I felt pulled to make a jump from homeroom teacher to technology coach, which ultimately led to a big change in my life. As the 2016 school year came to a close, I applied for and accepted the role of Lower School Technology Integration Specialist and Computer Science Teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. In preparation for tackling this new role, I enrolled in CEP 815, Technology and Leadership. In this course, I examined the management of educational technology through the lens of a leader. By critiquing different leadership styles, I was able to determine the colors I wanted to paint my blank leadership canvas. What became immediately clear to me was that establishing trusting relationships with my colleagues needed to be at the forefront of everything I did. I applied what I learned in class by making it a priority to attend all grade level meetings. I earned the trust of my colleagues by listening more than I talked, tailoring technology integration to their curriculum, and supporting their technology needs with empathy. Learning a variety of approaches to support my colleagues was something I valued about this course. In one memorable assignment, I collaborated with a fellow CEP 815 classmate to develop a hands-on App Playdate to support several frustrated colleagues. The goal of this professional development was to provide authentic examples of ways integrate iPads in the classroom. Furthermore, this course inspired the evolution of my vision for education.
One part of my vision statement reads, “There needs to be a shift from an environment where teachers are administrators of content to one where teachers are partners and facilitators. Teachers should provide students with the skills necessary to collaboratively think beyond what has been to what could be. Teachers need to pose questions and give their students time to collaborate, research, make mistakes, and learn.” In CEP 817, Learning Technology by Design, I studied the Design Thinking Process. I examined each step of the process (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test) to gain a true understanding for how it could be applied in classroom curriculum. What fascinated me the most about this class was learning authentic ways to incorporate Design Thinking across the curriculum, particularly through Maker Education. When I later took CEP 820, Teaching Students Online, I was inspired to apply what I learned in CEP 817 to create Elementary Design Thinking, a website with the goal of teaching teachers how to implement Design Thinking across the curriculum.
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To culminate the MAET program, I took CEP 807, Proseminar in Educational Technology. In this capstone course, I developed a cumulative portfolio to demonstrate my learning through the program. By pushing me to reflect on each experience and assignment, I was provided an intense sense of accomplishment. In addition to showcasing graduate work, I designed my portfolio to highlight my teaching practices and strengths as an educator. Because I think an online portfolio is the best way to bring teaching to life, I included many photos and videos of the work my students have done.
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As I come to the end of this journey, I am profoundly grateful for every experience I have had in the MAET program. As an educator, I feel a renewed sense of responsibility to continually adapt my teaching to what’s new and next. As I put the future of my students in the forefront of my mind, I am charged to immerse them with a healthy balance of the skills children have historically needed for success in the workplace and those skills they will need for the birth of future occupations. The MAET program has taught me that I can prepare children for a world that does not exist by instilling in them creativity and confidence. I will continue to do this by fostering an environment that encourages children to ask questions and solve problems. Our generation is in charge of preparing the next generation of inventors, thinkers, creators, and lifelong learners - the MAET program has instilled in me the skills and growth mindset to take on this exciting, scary, and lofty challenge.