A Refreshing Perspective
I’m finally here, approaching the end of my master’s degree. There was a time in my life where I was very sure I would not go on to graduate school. During my undergraduate studies, as I was studying to attain my passionate goal – to be a secondary math teacher – I did not feel that I would need or want to continue my growth as a teacher through graduate school. However, this has clearly not remained the case. After my student teaching, I realized that I might want to continue taking courses that would enable me to expand my teaching knowledge and its applications. My undergraduate studies did not feel like enough and thus I found myself looking into the Master of Arts of Education (MAED) program at Michigan State University (MSU). And here I am now. Full of new teaching ideas, incredible applications of knowledge, and most importantly, refreshed perspectives.
My biggest takeaways from the MAED are perspectives on teaching that I was not too familiar with, if at all, before working on this master’s. These perspectives fall into two main categories: technology and classroom management. While my classroom management skills during student teaching grew tremendously throughout those months, my master's studies opened up a whole new perspective on managing a classroom and student behavior that I am so grateful to have learned. With regards to technology, I have to say that I was quite skeptical – for reasonable reasons – about how technology can affect teaching and learning positively. While I still have my cautions, my MAED courses have opened my eyes to how I can extract the best qualities of the technology we have to enrich teaching and learning of mathematics; an area I was mostly, but not completely, oblivious to before. Let us explore the three main courses that have positively impacted my teaching perspectives.
Electronic Assessment for Teaching and Learning
The very first course that I took in this degree was CEP 813: Electronic Assessment for Teaching and Learning. I had been a strong believer in the importance of assessments in informing my instructional decisions, both formative and summative. I thoroughly practiced formative assessment in my student teaching, whether it be continuous observation of student work during class time, asking students clarifying questions to better understand their thinking about the mathematics, and frequently administering exit tickets at the end of class to assess what they learned. Nevertheless, I was not very familiar with using technology in my assessments.
As I began this course and worked on the projects, I was amazed and so thrilled to learn about how assessments can actually enhance and enrich learning! One of the biggest takeaways in this class is that assessment can be of learning, for learning, and as learning. This is such a crucial concept to grasp, and I am now so much more confident in the goals I have for my students’ learning when I will design assessments. It was so helpful for me to take the time in designing creative, unique, and very well thought out assessments in this course. I would ask myself questions such as “How will this assessment actually increase my students’ conceptual understanding of this math topic?” or “Is this assessment truly giving me accurate information about what my students know about this?” I will now feel much more productive in my design of assessments, as I feel that I have a much deeper understanding of how assessments can support learning and inform teaching.
Another huge learning opportunity I had in CEP 813 was how technology can be used in assessments. Again, this was an area I pretty much had no experience in. Additionally, I have my reservations about encouraging students’ use of electronics and internet usage, which is a topic I was able to reflect upon in my master’s. I feel that through CEP 813 I was able to develop a healthy balance of using technology in teaching and learning, exploring how to extract some of the best qualities of technology and implement that into students’ understanding of mathematics. I learned about electronic portfolios, content management systems, online feedback tools, and even Minecraft in learning. I am still not an advocate of gaming, nor do I think that the future of education lies in games. However, I was pleased to gain experience in CEP 813 about how gaming software such as Minecraft can provide students with unique opportunities to engage in assessment for learning. Through designing a unit rate assessment through Minecraft, I realized that I could use this program to help students apply mathematics in a realistic context, increase motivation, and creatively and effectively assess students’ learning of the concept of unit rate. Ultimately, CEP 813 laid down the foundation of my understanding of using technology in teaching and learning, particularly for assessments. I still have many of the tech tools that I analyzed in that class saved in a file in my favorites for future applications. I look forward to being able to applying many of my projects into my teaching of mathematics, from Schoology assessments to electronic portfolios.
Learning Mathematics with Technology
I was very eager to learn more about mathematics teaching and learning specifically as I progressed in my master’s studies. This is my passion, my profession as an educator. CEP 805: Learning Mathematics with Technology was one of the best courses I took in my degree. I loved how this course challenged my thinking as a mathematics educator and encouraged deep reflection about what it means for students to understand mathematics. This, combined with how the course focused on technology’s use in math learning and teaching, made CEP 805 a fantastic learning experience for me. This course also felt like a great way to follow up CEP 813, as I was specifically considering how technology influences mathematics teaching. The biggest project I did in this course was evaluating several tech tools and how they affect teaching of mathematics and how it helps students grasp the content. The main question I would ask myself was “What is this tech tool offering to my teaching and my students’ learning that would not be effective or possible without it?” I feel that keeping this essential question in mind is what now drives my consideration of how to use technology in teaching. As I come across various tools, whether it be interactive online math applications, fun online math games, or web quests, I keep this overarching theme of reflection in my mind.
I have always been very focused on learning how to ensure my students truly understand math content. What does it mean for students to really understand math? What does it look like for students to be proficient at procedural knowledge? All of these are important questions that I was very glad to be able to expand on in CEP 805. What I thoroughly enjoyed about this course was the authentic combination of my learning of teaching mathematics and using technology in teaching. I was able to deeply reflect upon relational (conceptual) and instrumental (procedural) learning of mathematics. Once I got a good grasp of what such understanding looks like in students, where each is most appropriate according to content, and why both are essential to overall learning of mathematics, I then moved on in the course to how technology supported each of these understandings.
I feel like this course was just what I needed to enable me to finally be exposed to how technology has many affordances in enhancing student understanding of math. My colleagues in this class and I had several beneficial and active discussions about important topics in this area. One of the best topics I remember engaging in was the topic of where calculators’ place is in the learning of mathematics. I have not always been an advocate for using calculators in math class, especially in middle school math or for procedural math that students “should know” such as basic multiplication and addition. My student teaching experience, followed by my discussions with colleagues in CEP 805 about this highly debated topic, I feel that my perspective here is refreshed. Hearing from many other teachers and sharing my own student teaching experiences, along with applying our newfound understanding of how technology can be used to enhance relational and instrumental understanding of math, greatly opened my eyes to how technology such as calculators can actually increase student understanding of math! It’s all about how it is used and where in the learning process it is used. I greatly appreciated being able to gain a refreshing perspective.
Classroom and Behavior Management
Classroom management and responding to student behavior is one of the biggest challenges faced as a teacher. While this was not the focus of my degree, I really wanted to grow in this area. I yearned to develop more effective strategies in managing student behavior and building a positive culture in my classroom at the same time. In my student teaching, one of the best strategies that I felt helped with students’ behavior was building a good rapport with them. I was so enthused to be able to expand on this and learn about positive behavior support and intervention in my master’s class CEP 841: Classroom and Behavior Management in the Inclusive Classroom.
Honestly, this course felt so refreshing. I absolutely loved learning about new perspectives in classroom management. I had never heard of positive behavior support and intervention, but it just made so much sense to me, and it aligned very well with my personal beliefs about managing student behavior. Listening to Rick Lavoie’s talk of ideas and implementations of managing student behavior positively was very encouraging in this course. The books I bought for the course are fantastic, and I regularly reference them when I want to search up a specific technique on how to respond effectively to certain behaviors, or how to build a positive classroom culture. This course has made a huge impact on how I view classroom management. I no longer feel as intimidated by what I might encounter with regards to student behavior. I now have a toolbox of applicable ideas, from the importance of designing motivating lessons to proper conflict resolution. I came out of this course feeling so positive and with a new perspective on classroom management. What better way to help teachers project a positive attitude towards managing student behavior than to make teachers themselves feel positive and encouraged when learning about this topic?
CEP 841 enabled me to explore and learn about one of the most important aspects of teaching that is incredibly important in building positive relationships with students and managing their behavior. That is home-school communication. I do not have much experience in this area from my student teaching, thus I was very eager to research more about conducting effective communication with parents and its positive effects on student behavior. This is definitely not an area addressed enough, just glazed over, in teacher preparation programs. I now feel so much more prepared, as creating a presentation on this topic has enabled me to learn in depth about various effective parent-teacher communication techniques. It is one of the best methods of classroom management that I now feel more confident in applying. It is definitely an area I want to heavily focus on in my teaching.
Moving Forward
Moving forward, I feel very grateful to have had this opportunity to continue learning as an educator through the Master of Arts in Education program. Learning about mathematics teaching, technology and learning, and positive behavior support have been some of the highlights of my refreshed perspectives as I conclude my studies. I feel that I now have a better insight into these concepts in education and their applications in teaching and learning. Another great aspect is that I now have a better awareness of certain topics in education that I can specifically aim to grow in after my master’s, such as technology in mathematics and building a positive classroom culture. I greatly look forward to applying my knowledge and projects in my teaching, as I move on with a refreshed perspective.