I have met many teachers that seemed to know they were destined to be teachers from the time they were little. They would act like little teachers in school, loved doing their homework, and spent their weekends reading and teaching math to their toys. This, however, was not me. I enjoyed seeing my friends at school, and I was a good kid. But, my schoolwork was always late because I was a perfectionist, I put homework off to the last minute which turned into a wrestling match and tears at the dining room table when it was bedtime, and I was never able to memorize my basic multiplication facts. I earned all A’s and B’s in school, but it came pretty naturally - I didn’t have to work very hard, so maybe “earned” isn’t the right term. I was always more interested in what was going on after school, my clubs and sports, that what was going on in school. I enjoyed learning, but I enjoyed soccer more. When my Junior year of high school came around, and we were beginning our talk of career choices and college visits, I had known for years that I was going to be a lawyer. From the time I was ten, and Legally Blonde came out, I was going to be the next Elle Woods. However, my world was rocked when my career aptitude test said I was a match for “Education and Training.” That was the first day I ever thought about being a teacher, and I haven’t thought about any other career since. Now, I understand that those tests are not always correct, but it at least put the idea in my head for the first time, and I truly believe, to this day, that my career as a teacher was meant to be.

 

Part of my success as a teacher stems from my ability to understand the struggle. I was not a perfect student, and I never expect my students to be perfect either. What I understood most from my struggle is that loving to learn does not need to be equated with being “good” at something. I pride myself on sparking curiosity in my students - a true drive to ask questions and explore new ideas. This is difficult at first, because children have been led to think that if they were listening or paying attention, then they wouldn’t have any questions. But in my classroom, having questions means that you ARE listening and paying attention, and you still need to know MORE. I’m able to teach this way with my students because I live this way myself. I stay curious and wonder, and I get distracted while watching a show because I’m looking up something a character said that I need to know more about. I have learned to love learning so much more than I ever thought possible, which has led me to where I am today. As I think back on all that I have learned, one of my most challenging and rewarding endeavors has been my time at MSU working on my Master’s degree. Of all that I have learned, there are three key topics that have stuck with me the most - leadership, motivation, and skill-building.

 

Leadership

 

One of the most recent courses I took was EAD 867 Case Studies in Educational Leadership. As the title of the course suggests, I spent time studying a variety of educational and organizational cases, exploring the positives and negatives of a leaders’ decisions. We would read a variety of articles related to leadership, and then read a case that had multiple examples of failed or flawed leadership. After reading through the material, we would discuss as a group what we thought, and write a case analysis to state our final thoughts on the case and what leadership strategies could be used to resolve the issues.Through these case studies, I was able to relate leadership qualities to my own career, learning more effective (and less effective) ways to be a leader in my school. I was able to see that great leaders often possess many of the same qualities, and that these qualities are not necessarily something you are born with. You can learn to be a leader in the same way that you can learn to drive a car - it takes practice, learning new skills, and time. Fostering the qualities of great leaders and taking on new challenges to practice my leadership can help me become a better leader. 

 

This course also allowed me to see the other side with a clearer lens. While taking this course, there were numerous times that I thought about how my principal or superintendent handled a situation that I didn’t quite understand at the time. However, looking back on it I was able to see where they might have been coming from, which has really helped me become a better follower as well. Instead of rushing to judgement, I am able to take a step back and realize the reasons behind their leadership decisions. Part of being a leader is also knowing when to follow, so in learning about leadership, I also learned about followership as well.

 

Motivation

 

As you may have noticed from my story above, I wasn’t exactly the picture of motivation when it came to schoolwork. School was not always my top priority, and I assumed it was because I simply wasn’t that “type” of student. I learned in CEP 802 Developing Positive Attitudes Towards Learning that there isn’t a “type” of student that is motivated or not, but rather all students are able to be motivated. This completely changed the way I thought of myself as a learner, and more importantly, the way I thought of myself as a teacher. Above all else, I learned that there is always something I can do to help a child become motivated to learn. My students are not unmotivated because there is something wrong with them, they may just need a little extra support every now and then. In the course, we used a framework to analyze, plan, and discuss what causes could be linked to a lack of motivation, and sometimes even found it had nothing to do with motivation to begin with. There are so many factors that affect student learning, and motivation is just one piece of the puzzle. Sometimes it takes a little intrinsic motivation to help a student see that this is a concept or idea they really do want to know about, and sometimes it takes a more extrinsic approach, like rewards or consequences, for a student to find their motivation. And even still, sometimes there is enough motivation but there is a disconnect somewhere else, such as a gap in content knowledge or a simple miscommunication of instructions.

 

In order to sort out the complexity of student motivation, we spent weeks in this course creating our own case study. I selected a student that I found to have a lack of motivation in my math class, and created an intervention plan to increase her motivation to complete her work during class time. I implemented this plan and documented her progress, and I was amazed at the results I was able to see, even in just the first couple of weeks. From that point on, I truly understood the impact motivation has on student learning, and have factored that notion into every lesson I have taught since.

 

Skill-building

 

To this day, one of my most memorable courses of my graduate work was TE 855 Teaching School Mathematics. As I mentioned before, I was one of those poor souls that struggled to learn my “times tables.” I can’t necessarily say that I practiced much at home, and I regretted it well into my college years. However, I didn’t realize at the time how important it would be in so many math classes to come. Then came this course. Teaching School Mathematics was an inquiry into the concepts and teaching styles of math education, and we spent a lot of time reflecting on the way we learned math when we were young compared to how math is taught today. Today’s math instruction focuses more on the “why” rather than the “how,” and there is a stark difference in effective ways to teach math this way. While we explored many different ways to teach math, one that has stuck with me is using inquiry-based instruction. In this approach, students are encouraged to question and try and fail and question again. Allowing students the time to explore and struggle helps them understand what doesn’t work, which in turn makes it easier to understand what does work. 

 

By using this approach in my own classroom, I have seen amazing amounts of growth from the most surprising of students. If I’m being entirely honest, there are times my students will come up with a solution that I had never even thought of. They are encouraged to work together, help their partners, ask questions, try, try, try. This approach has not only made a difference in their scores, but also in their confidence as mini mathematicians. 

 

Overall, my time spent working on my Master’s degree has been more than what I hoped for. I am leaving MSU with a better understanding of student learning, fueled by new teaching strategies, leadership tips, and motivational approaches. I step into my classroom more confidently than ever before, and feel equipped with a vast knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning. Finally, I have proven to myself that the little girl I used to be is school was enough to create the rewarding future I have in front of me, which is more than enough for me to inspire my students to be all they can be. The struggle was real, but I see the value of that struggle in the eyes of my students every day.