Simply put, teaching has always made me happy. As a little girl I set up my own classroom underneath the basement stairs equipped with sticks that I had wrote names on from my homemade class roster, my own white board, a map, some dolls, and some books. After spending hours in my own elementary classroom, I would race off the bus and head downstairs to the classroom I created. I would model and copy my own educators teaching to a T, often repeating phrases they said, writing and drawing like them, and even duplicating their body language and gestures. It wasn’t long after hours of pretend play in a classroom that I had my mind sent on becoming a teacher one day. Not many kids pick what they want to do with the rest of their lives at the age of 6, but because of my amazing kindergarten teacher, I fell in love with school; teaching and learning specifically, and that love hasn’t gone away.

 

I worked in a daycare throughout high school which only solidified my choice in working with children more. During my undergraduate experience at MSU, I never explored other programs or degrees. I knew I wanted to be an elementary educator the first day of orientation so I got right to the prerequisites I needed to get into the college of education. My sophomore year is where I learned about the Early Childhood Education Program at MSU, which sparked further interest. I became intrigued with the way young children developed and learned. Although still wanting to become a classroom teacher, I majored in Elementary Education but took additional classes to earn an endorsement in Early Childhood Education so I could specialize in teaching kindergarten through second grade. I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in May 2013 and landed a student teaching internship in a kindergarten classroom in Waterford, MI. My dream was finally becoming a reality.

 

I loved teaching kindergarten in Waterford, and my student teaching experience was extremely positive. Juggling student teaching and continuing to take courses allowed me to visualize what a future would be like having a full time teaching job while earning my master’s degree. I knew I wanted my master’s quickly but was sold on Early Childhood Education until I received my first teaching job. In the fall of 2014 I became a kindergarten teacher in a much more affluent community, Lake Orion. We had far more technology in our building than I had in Waterford and I was fascinated with my young learners getting their hands on it. This immediately sparked my interest in earning my master’s Degree in educational technology. I wanted to find out how I could teach effectively with the use of technology and share that information with my colleagues. My long term goal quickly became a technology leader for early childhood education.

 

 

The Master of Arts in Education Technology (MAET) program shifted my thinking greatly. At the start of this journey I thought I was simply going to learn how to teach effectively with technology. My thoughts, at first, were closed off and concentrated on what I already knew. I was not yet open to exploring a world of possibilities. I knew how to use technology well and thought that learning how to teach with it would keep my students more engaged and heighten their interest. It wasn’t until I allowed myself to be ok with not knowing what I was going to be expected to do in these courses that my own learning really took place. The reality of the program was first understanding how people, both students and myself, learn. Yes, absolutely nothing to do with technology yet! This learning took place in CEP 810, Teaching for Understanding with Technology.

 

CEP 810 was the first course in the Educational Technology Certificate and Master’s in Educational Technology program. It built a strong foundation on essential topics including studying theories of learning and understanding separately, before diving into the world of technology. I was able to test my own learning and understanding and was encouraged to make mistakes, research, explore, discover and continue to try again. I took this course after my first year teaching and was able to apply much of my experiences of that first year to the valuable lessons learned in this course. I made many mistakes my first year teaching and was frustrated often, but I was encouraged to continue to try to improve my teaching the following year. I was also introduced to a Personal Learning Network (PLN) and began working on building my own which is a valuable asset I continue to add to today. Through this first course, I quickly realized that my colleagues and professors in the MAET program would be apart of my PLN for years to come. My PLN grew course after course as I was introduced to new classmates, theories, ideas, examples, and learning. This course gave me a sense of joy and accomplishment which I hadn’t felt in many of my undergrad classes before. I was eager to continue on with the program as this course paved a pathway of fun and excitement with hands on projects, discussion, and collaboration, defying the “online course” dread.

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A second influential course in the MAET program was CEP 811, Adapting Innovative Technologies into Education. Through this course my eyes were widened on what exactly technology was and what types of technologies could be used in education. This course introduced me to the maker culture and the maker movement in education. This course taught me that the most important thing behind the technologies we are giving our students should be innovation, creativity, drive, desire and, curiosity. I learned that students are so much more capable than we often believe they are and my expectations for my students completely soared through the roof after this course. I am no longer afraid of my students making mistakes, messing up or not exactly knowing how to do something one hundred percent correctly. In fact, I often praise mistakes so that I can use it as an example to clear up misconceptions in my classroom. This course has driven me to create passion time in my classroom and gave me the confidence to use Donor’s Choose for my funding, asking friends and family to donate money to create 21st century learners. Passion time is a time set aside in my classroom once a week for STEM based centers one of which includes a maker station. Students spend time here often, visiting our maker cart during their own free choice time. This course has allowed me to explore new ways to remix learning experiences rooted in creativity and purposeful design practices that I didn’t even know existed.

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My third course I took in the summer of 2015 and the last course in earning my Educational Technology Certificate was CEP 812, Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice. This course was impactful in my teaching in many ways, but the most important was that it influenced my teaching immediately. I was able to make changes to problems of practice at the beginning of my second year of teaching, which started a few weeks after the course had ended. The goal of CEP 812 was focused on exploring complex or wicked problems of practice and finding possible solutions to those problems that involve technologies.  These problems of practice needed to be addressed to change the future of education according to the The New Media Consortium (NMC) but were very complex and didn’t have one simple answer or solution. Because these problems are in the present, not speaking of the past or future, this course motivates me to research and use my PLN to find solutions to integrate immediately. This class taught me that to rethink teaching we must address the most important factor, the student. Completing this class before beginning my second year of teaching gave me the confidence to implement personalized learning with a flexible classroom, combined with the implementation of 21st century skills.  

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During CEP 810, 811, and 812 I was asked to create a blog to upload completed course work. This would be how I would communicate with my professors and give and receive feedback from peers. One problem my mentor teacher and I had in my student teaching experience was communicating with parents about what learning was happening in our classroom. My mentor teacher and her teaching partner sent out newsletters once a month and were content, but I knew that when I got my own classroom I wanted to enhance the communication with families. One goal of mine as a new teacher was just that. After completing the three courses above on an interactive blog, I decided to create a classroom blog the following school year, that I updated weekly with classroom newsletters, photos, videos, and work samples to keep families engaged. In these courses, I learned skills for uploading media content, how to create a professional yet personal display, as well as website restrictions and creative commons licensing that I was unaware of before beginning this program.

 

 

With the completion of CEP 810, 811, and 812 I went into my second year of teaching kindergarten with my Educational Technology Certificate. During this school year, I was asked to be apart of Lake Orion’s Techno Dragon team as a lower elementary representative. My role as a Techno Dragon was to attend two meetings per year, present at our district’s technology conference, and to be a mentor to my grade level colleagues across the district. Looking back, as a second year teacher I lacked the confidence, not knowledge, to do this job well. I had tons of knowledge to share with colleagues but it wasn’t until I took CEP 815 the following summer that I grew as a technology leader.

 

CEP 815, Technology and Leadership, taught by Dr. Aman Yadav and Benjamin Gleason helped me understand the role of a leader and how to better develop as one. This course resonated with me so intensely because it helped me see a vision other than being a classroom teacher for my entire career in education. It also allowed me to see multiple perspectives of potential benefits and challenges to leading different audiences. I gained professional development strategies and enhanced my job as a Techno Dragon which helped me lead my grade level team across the district in monthly technology emails where we shared ideas and information. I created my own personal vision statement that evolved throughout the course as I gained new knowledge on technology and leadership. This course was not designed to help me in my classroom teacher role. Instead, I was able to work on myself, personally, developing a strong understanding of my own strengths and weaknesses. This course has helped me put aside the fear of possibly transitioning away from a classroom teacher and instead has made me eager to step up into a leadership role in the future.

 

 

As I reflect back on my courses in the MAET program, I stand by my decision to take courses throughout the summer when I was not teaching. Not only did I feel that I was able to put all my time and energy into my courses, more importantly, I was able to apply new learnings and see myself grow as an educator and learner year after year. When I enter the classroom again this fall I will be entering with my Master’s Degree, equipped with skills, tools, and knowledge I didn’t have when I began teaching. I find it coincidental that after completing my Master’s program, I will be starting a new chapter this school year, teaching a new grade after being in the same grade for the last three years. If there’s one overarching idea that sticks out to me that I have gained through this program it’s that you can never be too comfortable. There is always more to learn, always more to pursue.  As long as I continue on as a classroom educator, I am confident that the knowledge this program has given me will allow me to address the challenges faced in education today. I will provide my students with best practices incorporating digital tools and continue on this journey of lifelong learning to be the best educator possible. One day, I plan to follow my passion and instill educational technology knowledge in early childhood educators. I feel confident that my technology leadership skills learned from this program will give me the power and desire to do so in order to live a life of happiness and fulfillment.