The Power of Change
Original goals: Improve student engagement & classroom management
When I looked at my initial goals upon entering the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program, I was really surprised. My overall goals were to improve my teaching in two main categories: student engagement and classroom management. I was especially surprised by my classroom management goal- I’ve improved so much in that area that I forgot it was a goal of mine!
Secondary original goal: Teaching online courses
I also wanted to learn more about teaching and facilitating online courses. Increasingly, schools are moving toward including more technology and online courses into their curriculum. It was an important goal for me to keep up with the trends in technology for my current job, and also to open up any future job prospects.
Goal met: classroom management
I always strive to have good classroom management, but it’s not something I need to think about every day anymore. Originally, I wanted to learn how to have better control of my classroom. I no longer consider this a goal because I have learned a lot about improving this, and have met this goal to a great extent. One course that helped me meet that goal was “Educating Students with Challenging Behavior (CEP 832).” This course helped me reflect upon and alter the way I interact with challenging students. My biggest takeaway was that I learned to see each student as an individual, rather than all students as one large group.
Goal in progress/new goal: student engagement/improving practice
I still have a goal to improve student engagement. This never ends because each year, I get a new group of students. Once I get to know them, I have to do what’s best to keep them engaged and cater to their interests. So, this goal of improving student engagement falls under a constant overall goal of improving my practice as a whole. As I’ve taken courses, I have learned to improve student engagement. For example, as part of my coursework, I created blogs for my Honors English 12 students, which allowed them to practice their writing about topics they were interested in. At the end of the year, students responded very positively to the blogs, which makes me want to continue to improve my practice to help them learn while staying engaged.
Goal in progress: Teaching online courses
I also still have a goal to learn more about how to run an online course, for the same initial reasons. Through the courses I have taken in the MAED program, I have worked toward meeting this goal, but I never want to reach a stagnant place in my practice. This is also still a goal because my district is moving toward using more technology through the use of Schoology, which I worked with for one of my courses. It’s important for me to continue to learn to use this technology to its full potential so I can offer the most to my students.