My master’s journey has taken 4 years to complete. Along the way there have been challenges, successes, failures and sometimes tears. In the end they have transformed me into a better teacher because of it. Below are the classes that have made up this wonderful journey.
TE 501 and 502: Internship in Teaching Diverse Learners I and II
Course Instructor: Stacey Pylman Course Taken: Fall 2016 and Spring 2017
These courses were in the form of a year long student teaching internship. We were placed inside a classroom and spent the year with the same class and mentor teacher. On Wednesday’s we would meet with our field instructor and another small group of others who were student teaching. We would have thought provoking discussions about what was happening in our classroom and how we can better our teaching. It was also a great resource for brainstorming engagement strategies for students. This was a great preview of what professional developments would look like in the future as a teacher.
TE 801: Professional Roles in Teaching Practice I
Course Instructor: Lauren Cavner Course Taken: Fall 2016
This course was taken when I was doing my student teaching, which allowed me to put theory into practice directly. This course focused on math content and strategies to implement in the classroom. This course stressed the importance of learning the theory and procedures behind teaching math instruction, not just do it to do it. One of the most valuable things I gained from the class was participating in number talks and realizing that mistakes are ok to make and help students with their learning.
TE 802: Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practices I
Course Instructor: Amy Croel-Perrien Course Taken: Fall 2016
This course was also taken at the same time I was doing my student teaching, but rather than focus on math like the course above it focused on language arts. Our instructor helped us plan and implement our reading and writing instruction in the classroom. We looked at language arts in its entirety of reading, writing, listening and speaking, the last two are often forgotten. In this course we learned non traditional ways to engage our learners, including the fish bowl discussion method which I still use in my classroom today.
TE 803: Professional Roles in Teaching Practices II
Course Instructor: Lynda Doornbos Course Taken: Spring 2017
This was the 3rd course I was taking during my student teaching and focused on Social Studies content. This class focused on making real life connections whenever possible in the classroom. We focused on promoting interactive teaching tools to give students the opportunity to be as hands on as possible, such as using hula hoops for compare and contrast activities. Our professor helped us create and implement our Social Studies lessons that we would later teach in our classroom.
CEP 810: Teaching for Understanding with Technology, CEP 811: Adapting Innovative Technology of Education, CEP 812: Applying Education Technology to Practice
Course Instructors: Chris Sloan and Allison Keller Course Taken: Summer of 2019
These courses were the most unique in opportunity when taking these classes. All three courses were integrated together in a study abroad learning opportunity in Ireland. They were structured to fully emerge us in the learning about and with technology. We were challenged with research projects, thought provoking reading assignments and challenged to create on new technology platforms. Over the time of these courses was when I created my blog page, which you can also click here to view. These courses did not teach individual skills but were integrated together to create an unbelievable learning experience.
CEP 800: Psychology of Learning in School and Other Settings
Course Instructor: Ron Houtman, Kyle Shack and Chris Sloan Course Taken: Summer 2020
In this course we were asked to combine reading about educational theories and concepts and reflect in unique creative ways. It incorporated writing traditional papers with different ways to show our learning. It made the learning relevant and relatable to us which shows the importance of assignments being more meaningful when they are more personalized to the learners. These strategies are some that I have brought into my own classroom.
CEP 815: Technology and Leadership
Course Instructor: Candace Robertson and Kyle Shack Course Taken: Summer 2020
This course challenged us to take a step back from whatever our current role is and had us take on the role of being a leader in whatever professional setting we are in. We read and analyzed different types of leadership styles and were challenged to determine what kind we currently are and which one we would like to become. We were supported by our professors to become the leaders we had always imagined we could be.
CEP 822: Approaches to Educational Research
Course Instructor: David Wong and Ming Lei Course Taken: Summer 2020
This course focused on the process of research and forming conclusion based on that research. This was done in a variety of ways including analyzing at data sets, annotating a variety of educational journals and writing a research paper on social and emotional learning. This course was unlike any one I had taken prior because it showed the amount of data that goes into educational theories. It was interesting to see the different and range of educational research.
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More than Colored Pencils and Crayons 