Elissa J. McClain

Before I even completed my undergrad at Michigan State University, there was no doubt in my mind that graduating and receiving a bachelor’s would not be the end of my formal education.  The year-long internship which I would be participating in was just the beginning of the path towards a graduate degree.  It would have been foolish to not take advantage of the wonderful opportunity set before me.  I knew that a master’s would help to shift my view of teaching and would have a significant effect on the skills I had already acquired.  I had always held a passion for learning and I looked forward to this journey.  Having taken a year off in between the completion of my internship and the continuation of my master’s program, I missed being in school.  I missed the knowledge I acquired as a result and the conversations I engaged in with my peers.  While I was nervous to be working full time while also being a graduate student, I couldn't wait to see what more I could accomplish as both a learner and a teacher.  I was ready for a new beginning.

 

I had always wanted to be a teacher, but I had never fully understood the challenges and hurdles that must be jumped to be a successful one.   This made me extremely enthusiastic to participate in the online MSU MAED program.  I couldn't wait to learn many new techniques, strategies and best practices that would help me to become an expert instructor.  Participating in an online program was an easy choice.  I have always been a self-directed learner and I had no doubt that I would stay organized enough to be motivated and successful.  I also had accepted a job in Waterford, so there was no way I could attend courses on MSU's campus.  Yet, I wasn't willing to give up being a Spartan, so an online program was the best option.  The road toward the accomplishment of receiving my master's degree certainly has not been easy, but it has absolutely been worthwhile.  As an elementary teacher, I feel enlightened and incredibly proud of the knowledge I have acquired in this pursuit.  

 

After looking over my options for the various concentrations

in the MAED program, I carefully made the decision to get my

degree in literacy education.  This was a tough choice.  I didn't

necessarily have a favorite subject that I wanted to learn more

about.  Instead, I made my decision based on what I thought I

needed as an educator in order to improve the skills of my

students.  I had to ask myself what kind of instruction my

future students would need in order to be successful, lifelong

learners.  Obviously, literacy is a foundational skill which is

necessary for the success of all students.  As teachers, we

often learn how high school students are not ready upon

graduation for the rigors of literacy education at the college

level.  I knew that it was my responsibility to improve my

teaching instruction in this area in order to support my

students.  I had also been moved down to a lower elementary

teaching position where the teaching of reading and writing

was even more essential.  I felt the need to learn new ideas and

practices to support young learners.       

 

In spring 2012, I began one of the many courses which I found to be incredibly helpful as a classroom teacher.  This course was called Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners (TE 846).  I was in the midst of a very challenging year as a teacher.  I was trying to learn how to blend two brand new curriculums and I had a variety of students with different learning challenges.   At times in my classroom, I felt as though I were drowning.  It seemed like no matter what I did to try to help all of my students, it just wasn't enough.  I enrolled in this course specifically because I felt that I needed to learn new strategies to support the challenges I was seeing in such young students.  In this course, I learned about the factors that influence literacy instruction, including developmental processes and assessment strategies that help to shape instruction.  I also learned a variety of ways to differentiate instruction to support all children, no matter their learning ability.  One of the greatest advantages of this course was creating a case study where we observed a struggling learner in our own classroom.  I learned how to carefully look at the abilities of individual students to provide accommodations to support his/her needs and create lessons which included these accommodations.  By being reflective, I was able to analyze the effectiveness of the lessons I created and to modify them when needed in order to have an effective education plan.  This is an important skill for all educators.  I found that perseverance and patience could help me to accomplish what I had previously thought I couldn't.

 

The next course which strongly impacted my educational career was Writing Assessment & Instruction (TE 848).  I have always felt less confident about my writing instruction, so this course was an absolute must.  I really wanted to learn how to strongly support students who barely knew how to write, so they could produce longer, more interesting pieces.  TE 848 really helped to support my understanding of writing instruction and assessment.  One of the books we were required to purchase was Gail E. Thompkins’ Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product.  This book taught me a huge repertoire of skills that I was able to take and instantly implement in my classroom.  I learned more about the writing process and the traits of writing.  I also learned how to create more engaging writing lessons and how to facilitate more productive and strategic writing conferences.  This made my writing workshop more meaningful and successful.  Teaching revising and editing to young writers was a skill that I found to be especially challenging.  I struggled teaching my students the true importance of these essential stages of the writing process.  As a culminating project, I engaged in a research assignment where I studied effective ways to enhance revising and editing instruction.   I learned that if I understood these processes better myself, I would be able to present them more effectively to my students. This course was extremely beneficial to my success as a writing instructor.

     

Autism Spectrum Disorders: ​Characteristics and Educational Implications​​ (CEP 843) was a course which has proved not to be necessary for my current daily instruction, but helped to open my eyes to the challenges of learners with ASD.  When I enrolled in the course, I had a student in my class who was being tested to see if he was on the autism spectrum.  While his tests came back inconclusive, it was wondered if he had pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS).  This student had a lot of trouble verbalizing his thoughts and emotions, which affected his social interactions.  He would be quick to anger and become violent because of his communication and academic frustrations.  This was my first experience dealing with a child with these kinds of challenges and I honestly felt as though I lacked the appropriate knowledge and skills to support him.  I found it hard to maintain an effective teaching stance with him which made things more difficult.  I took this course to help me understand what children with ASD experience and to help me know how to provide an effective learning environment for those children.  This course really helped to enlighten me to the struggles that these children and their families face.  By learning a variety of strategies to help educate a child with ASD or other similar disorders, I was able to provide my student with a more comfortable and supportive classroom experience.  I learned that each child with ASD is different and it is important to get to know each student on an individual basis in order to create an effective learning plan.  I also conducted a case study on a student who was diagnosed ASD and created a PowerPoint presentation on the language deficits associated with ASD.  This course taught me the strategies needed to remain a positive, supportive instructor. 

 

One of the final and most beneficial courses I took in the MAED program was Educating Students with Challenging Behavior (CEP 832).  In this course, I learned how to recognize a wide variety of challenging behaviors in students and create interventions to counteract these behaviors.  The behaviors on which we focused were not all hostile or aggressive ones.  We learned how to support isolated, withdrawn and shy students as well.  Each week, we read about various behaviors and engaged in a case study where we had to recognize a behavior based on evidence.  We then had to provide strategies to help both the student and his/her family.  Not only this, but we learned how to share our ideas with our colleagues so that we could understand how to help out fellow faculty members who had challenging students.  This course helped me to become an effective leader of supporting students with challenging behavior.   I learned how to recognize many behaviors which were happening in my own classroom and was given a toolbox of strategies to help reduce my own frustrations and those of my students.  This course forced us to carefully look at the whole child and analyze behaviors while maintaining a positive, effective teaching stance.  This taught me how to shift my paradigm so I could be a more supportive teacher.  There is often an underlying reason why children have behavioral challenges.  In order to be effective, we have to maintain correct paradigms by keeping an open mind and realizing that however much we see, there is always more to the picture.  This course required me to choose a student from my own classroom who demonstrated a challenging behavior.  I had to create an intervention plan based on research from the course to help change the demonstrated behaviors.  I published my findings in a PowerPoint which explains the steps I took to support my student and the changes I noticed in his behavior. 

 

As the culmination to my career in the MAED program, I participated in the Capstone Seminar (TE 870).  This course allowed me to revisit my experiences throughout the online master's program in a new, enlightening way.  I have always been interested in technology and have found learning new techniques to be relatively easy.  When I learned we had to create an online portfolio, I was extremely excited.  I found each step of the process to be engaging and a fun way to showcase my journey through the master's program.  I have taken much pride in my accomplishments.  The course has also been incredibly supportive.  We have a variety of amazing instructors who want nothing more than to help us create a masterpiece.  We are also given the opportunity to receive feedback from our classmates each step of the way which has been wonderfully helpful.  It's great to have extra sets of eyes to help us make sure our work is up to par.  

 

Not only has the Capstone Seminar helped me to create a portfolio which demonstrates who I am as a learner and an instructor, it has helped me to look back at my past and to look forward to my future.  By writing a Goal Reflection Essay I looked back at my aspirations when starting my unknown journey in the MAED program.  I analyzed how my thinking and goals have or have not been changed by my work in the master's program.  This helped me to take a very insightful look at my educational path thus far.  The Future as a Learner Essay required me to look at myself as a lifelong learner.  Now that my formal education has come to a close, I had to ask myself how I plan to continue developing my practices and skills as a teacher.  I was reminded that as a teacher, we can never stop learning and we never will.  The world is our classroom.  Life never stops teaching as we learn from new experiences and opportunities.  Even though my formal education is coming to a close, the end is really just the beginning.  I have become a better teacher because of the hard work I have put forth in this program.  I have learned so much that I will take with me in my career.  I will continue to learn more and fuel my passion for education.  Every story has an end and this is the end of my pursuit of a master's degree.  But in life every ending is just a new beginning.