Showcase of Graduate Work
The time I spent working on my Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) at Michigan State University, I grew as a learner, an educator, and a person. I developed skills and strategies that apply to my current career and my future goals. I completed many projects, essays, and assignments. These projects tapped into my creativity and required a growth mindset throughout the process. This page is designed to showcase specific graduate work that aligns with my three categories of learning, teaching, and technology. As a career I chose to be an educator. The best educators have committed to being lifelong learners as well. As technology continues to advance and provide many affordances in my field, it also becomes a part of my career and my identity as an educator. I have categorgized my showcase of work into three categories of learning, teaching, and technology. I view my professional and personal passions in these three dimensions.
Learning
PQ/CQ Learning Reflection
As a lifelong learner, I find it important to let your passion questions and curiosity questions drive your exploration. Upon reading the book, "A More Beautiful Question" by Warren Berger, I was hit a multitude of questions to ponder when reflecting on my own learning. I began thinking about my purpose as a learner and educator and what I wish to instill within my students. This work encapsulates my learning on my own passion and curiosities and how I drive that within my students.
Missing Link to Reading Success
Due to my interest in social-emotional learning and how I have seen it impact my student population, I researched how those "soft" skills effect the "hard" skill of reading development. After spending several weeks narrowing down my research topic, I finally decided on the topic of self-regulated learning. The research and work in this link demonstrates my personal beliefs and evidence I found surrounding this topic.
Student 2.0 Mindset
As a teacher, it's important to consider what it means to be a learner. There are specific mindsets that a true learner embodies as well as practices to become a lifelong learner. I have read several books that push me out of my comfort zone to view learning with a different perspective. In my blog, I reflected upon myself as a learner and how I apply that to my own life. Follow this link to my blog post. This blog post emphasizes my love for learning and how it is a cyclical process.
Teaching
We Are Makers
To be a creative and innovative teacher, I realized I needed to experience what it means to be innovative! This led me to research and discovery in maker education. Through this link you will find journals of my process of becoming a maker and the lesson I designed for my students. This work shows my willingness to learn for the sake of facilitating in a classroom setting.
Educational Space
As a teacher, the environment I create for my students is an inviting, functional, and comfortable classroom. After finishing my first couple of years of teaching I realized how important the learning space is for the learner. I spent time analyzing different learning spaces and seeing how to accommodate my research and my resources I have at my school. This displays the priority I place on even the smallest placement of things in my classroom for the success of my students.
Innovative Teaching
With my learning mindset and my experience as a teacher, I desire to mentor as a leader with an innovative mindset. As I offer feedback to anyone I may be mentoring, students, teachers, parents, etc, I follow a DES system. I begin by describing what I heard my mentee convey. I then will evaluate what was said based on my understanding of the assignment. Finally, I suggest options that will help move the project forward. I follow this structure as a mentor and teacher in various subject matters. Here is my reflection of learning and structure of teaching I explained on my blog. This demonstrates my ability to reflect on the leadership process and indentify strengths and areas to focus on.
Technology
#eportfolios
A huge allowance that technology gives students is the ability to take ownership of their learning. Digital Portfolios allows easier data collection and growth charting. My interest in student-centered learning ad technology led me to discover the magic of eportfolios. Here is the link to the webpage I made to describe my research on digital portfolios as well as the poster I created. The poster was printed as an A0 size poster and presented in front of colleagues and professors. This project showcases my ability to lead with technology and present on a technology benefit within the classroom.
Show Me How to DOJO
As a teacher I am always looking for a way to make classroom management more efficient and more conistent. One of the things that technology allows for is data tracking, easy communication with parents, and building self-motivation in students. I utitlized a screencast to help share my love for this technology platform. This is a very basic overview of the main uses of ClassDojo. This shows the affordances of technology in terms of classroom management and as a leader to share my knowledge.
3x3x3
If my students could use one personality trait to describe me, positivity would be up at the top. Being positive may come naturally to me but as a teacher it is my job to teach how to embrace positivity both with my students and with my coworkers. A growth mindset is essential to build knowledge and "can do it" attitude. I created a short video that encompasses my 3 big takeways after reading "The Growth Mindset Coach" by Annie Brock and Heather Hundley. This again shows the affordances of technology to lead and share knowledge.