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A DEGREE AND SO MUCH MORE!
I think back to this time 4 years ago, July of 2018 and I had no desire nor idea that I would be going back to school for another Masters, this time in Educational Technology (MAET). But, oh how much this experience has changed and truly shaped who I am and want to become as an educator. In early August of 2018 a family friend was visiting my family on the cape and had just returned from her second year in the MAET overseas program that took place in Galway, Ireland. Certainly she was raving about Ireland and all the beautifulness that it had to offer, which may have been what initially caught my eye. However, I also remember her emphasizing the invigorating learning that took place and how it has really helped her as an educator . She mentioned it was a lot of work and that you get pushed out of your comfort zone, but in a good way. I have always had a strong desire to keep learning, so this learning experience she was raving about started to seem more and more appealing to me. At the time I had felt pretty comfortable in my job, being at the same school now for a couple of years, yet I definitely didn’t feel like I was pushing myself to continue to learn in a deep and purposeful way. I felt like this opportunity could be the push I needed and couldn’t complain about an excuse to live in Ireland for a month. So, that winter I applied and found myself aboard a plane to Ireland on the last day of school in 2019. Never could I have imagined how thankful I would be for what I have learned throughout this program. Not only has my outlook on technology in education changed, but who I am as a teacher and even person has grown so much as well.
MAET Year 1
In the first year of my MAET experience I was fortunate enough to be a part of the overseas co-hort and this is where I think my passion for learning and the desire to pass on that passion to my students was reignited. That summer I took three courses that were integrated in a cohesive learning experience. Those courses were CEP810 Teaching Understanding with Technology, CEP811 Adapting Innovative Technology into Education, CEP812 Applying Education Technology to Practice. Beyond my passion for learning getting reignited, my outlook on using technology in the classroom changed dramatically. My expectation heading into this experience was that I was going to be exposed to a bunch of really cool tech tools that I could incorporate into my classroom instruction. Instead I began to see technology as something that could enhance student learning rather than just a mode of delivering instruction to students.
A really helpful tool that I learned about that first year and have continued to use is the TPACK framework. Using this framework I began to really analyze the role technology played and saw what it meant for it to be truly integrated into the learning process. My first dive into what it meant to me personally was during the creation of my Maker Project. I imagined the following year I was going to be doing a lot more curriculum redesigns similar to the Maker Project in which I would try to incorporate technology in a way that enhances the learning experience. It however was still a difficult task to do this in an effective way as much as I would have liked, but I had definitely started a transformation in the right direction in regards to the way I was using technology.
Video of Maker Prototype – (view the side with 3 dots as the face of the robot)
Another large impact these courses had on me was in relation to my writing abilities (or writing confidence). Leading up to this point in my educational career I had always avoided writing if at all possible. In my undergraduate degree I was actually able to use two math classes to count as some of my required “writing intensive” courses. I would often claim writing just wasn’t “my thing” or I simply just wasn’t a good writer. This was interesting because during these 3 courses I ended up doing a research project in which I wanted to figure out why so many students as they got older began to claim they were not “math people”. This experience made me really start to think about writing. What about it made me dislike it? I have come to realize that when I write something I am passionate about it can actually be quite a rewarding experience. Throughout these courses I found myself often writing in a blog style format which afforded me the opportunity to practice writing from a place that originated with my own beliefs, experiences, and goals. Somehow the courses this summer made me begin to enjoy writing again like I probably had when I was a young kid.
Click this link for my blog that will give you a closer look at my experience during the first summer of my MAET.
MAET Year 2
The following year I took a course called CEP833 Creativity in k-12 Computing Education. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 this time around instead of spending the month of July on the beautiful western coast or Ireland I was quarantined with 5 other family members in Groton, MA completing my courses online. I thought there is no possible way my experience would be as engaging as the summer before. It was interesting to be in a position where I myself was now the student learning remotely. I think in a way this was super helpful to me in terms of using technology to make content accessible to my students. I was getting to see first hand how technology can make it very possible to make learning engaging and just as deep as it would have been in person. I began to directly apply things I was doing in my course to the classes I was teaching.
This was an accelerated 7 week course that kept me on my toes every week. I felt constantly pushed to think creatively and intentionally. I would constantly ask myself is technology a vital element in the learning experience? In the first year I learned so much about how technology's role in education can go far beyond Google Classroom and completing assignments on chromebook, but unfortunately had yet to consistently apply that to my own instruction as much as I would have liked. Creating my Maker Project gave me some experience but there was still a lot of learning to be done for me in regards to where I want to be with my ability to use this idea in my own instruction consistently. During this course I was expected to create an activity weekly for my students in which I was using different computing programs such as Scratch, Trinket, and Open Processing to teach a mathematical concept that was typically taught in my curriculum. This was a really helpful experience for me because it gave me the opportunity to practice using the TPACK framework and get feedback on how I am incorporating technology on a consistent basis. Each week I was pushed to really be creative in the way I thought about technology and instruction. This I think has had a lasting impression on my creativity in general when it comes to my teaching.
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I feel as though the course has left me more confident in my ability to teach in a bit more outside of the box way. When school went remote in March of 2020 this skill was vital to me and my ability to teach my students in a way that was engaging and accessible. Throughout the course we used Mitch Resnick’s Creative Learning Spiral to guide our learning. This has been a helpful tool for me when designing learning experiences for my students and other staff professional development opportunities. It is a somewhat organized way to think creatively. The continuity of a spiral is something I have learned is very important when being creative. It is so important to continue to push yourself to keep trying to rethink and make improvements.
In week six of this course I was asked to think deeply about how my work addressed culturally responsive practice and aligned with the UDL framework. This idea of teaching in a culturally responsive way became a common conversation in education over the past few years. It was something I knew was very important for me to be aware of, especially within the demographic I teach. I however was pretty unaware of what it meant and actually how to do it within my own practice. What I learned was there are ways that I was already being culturally responsive and didn’t know. I continue to make choices when planning instruction for my students that aligns with what I learned throughout that unit.
MAET Year 3
One of the final courses I took for my Masters was CEP815 Technology and Leadership. To be honest going into this course I wasn’t super excited. I for some reason had synonymized the word leadership with administration and I always believed that being an administrator was not for me. However this class has shown me that being a leader can be done even when you are not in a so-called leadership position. The biggest impact this class has had on me as a teacher and even a person is the confidence it has given me. Not only confidence to help my students but the confidence to share what I have learned with other teachers. I have learned that being a leader is something that can even be done within my small teaching team. I view a leader in education technology now as someone who has clear visions, passionate about the development of themselves as well as their colleagues, and someone who is willing to think creatively to tackle difficult issues. All of which are things I feel equipped to take on and in fact am excited about. I feel empowered to take on issues and impact change in a way that I have not felt before. This is more of a feeling opposed to a skill that I learned in my courses. However I believe that this feeling will really help guide who I want to be as an educator moving forward.
I think this was a great class for me to wrap up my MAET journey as next year I will be taking on new leadership roles within my school. I feel that this will enable me to continue to practice that as educators we are lifelong learners. I hope that I can lead in a way to reflect and embody that belief. This is a belief that this course and many others in the programs have strengthened within me. I have learned that in order to be learning I certainly do not have to be in school as learning is always happening around us. The valuable lessons I learned in this course and all the courses throughout this program have given me the skills and tools to hopefully make positive change within my school community. Beyond developing as a leader I have a completely different outlook on what effective technology integration is now. Next year I will be working as a special educator, where I am excited to have the chance to find innovative ways to use technology to support students with an array of learning difficulties. This Masters has also left me feeling more confident in using writing as a tool to share my ideas. I am no longer shying away from opportunities in which I will need to write. I hope this continues to develop as I progress through my teaching career. Lastly, I now am constantly seeking out creative opportunities to continue to grow as a creative and critical thinker in the classroom and outside of it. As I conclude my experience in this program I know that earning the degree is what I physically may be walking away with but the skills and growth I have had is what I really have gained as an educator.