Fall 2007 - Spring 2008
Internship Courses
These courses were required as a component of Michigan State University’s fifth year internship program for education graduates. During this time, I completed three classes: TE 802 (Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practice) with Renee Wohl, TE 803 (Professional Roles and Teaching Practice) also with Renee Wohl, and TE 804 (Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practice II) with Wayne Hewitt. While enrolled, I was also student teaching, and applying the skills gained from my classes into my instruction practice. The classes helped me to perfect the art of lesson planning, learn how to differentiate for an array of learning abilities in the classroom, and align state and national standards with learning objectives. I was engaged in a semester long inquiry-based assignment which required working with students of varying ability levels in literacy and identifying strategies to meet their needs as well as challenge them. Throughout these courses, we also planned and implemented unit plans for math, science, and social studies. Though rigorous and challenging, the internship year was a valuable experience and helped me refine my skills prior to beginning my career as an educator.
Spring 2013
TE 861A Teaching Science for Understanding with Michelle Williams
I enrolled in this course in order to enhance my teaching of science and to become more familiar with the shift in national standards. One of the main focuses of this class was utilizing formative assessments to become more effective in our instruction and to move away from the memorization approaches often used in science classrooms today. We examined and used the Next Generation Science Standards to plan and teach a unit study, and reflected on our experience in a final essay. I chose to execute a lesson based on my students’ misconception surrounding the reason for changing seasons, which was successful due to the use of frequent formative assessments and hands-on experiments conducted. This course helped me gain strategies to successfully assess for student understanding and application of new science concepts and ideas.
Summer 2013
TE 846 Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners with Kari Richards
This course is associated with the State of Michigan Reading Requirement and focused on five main literacy instructional and assessment practices: cultural and linguistic differences, individual motivation differences, neuropsychological differences, instructional arrangements to accommodate learning differences, and required components of effective literacy instruction. We learned how to successfully modify and plan literacy lessons to meet the specific needs of learners from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The final project required me to conduct a student literacy assessment and analysis of two students in my class. My case study examined the disparity between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension. The driving question for the research considered whether or not oral fluency rates on a particular reading level coincided with a thorough comprehension, measured by the subjects’ ability to identify main idea and provide details.
ED 800 Educational Inquiry with Steven Weiland
ED 800 is an introductory course to the Masters of Education program and allows students to explore the foundations of our educational system. It is a self-paced course broken into six units and offers assignments in reading, listening and viewing. It is through the works of past and current education pioneers that students learn to fully develop their personal teaching philosophies and examine the role of education and the many forms of inquiry related to it. This course opened my eyes to the many education philosophies and offered me the opportunity to analyze and critique research and reforms both past and present.
Fall 2013
TE 855 Teaching School Mathematics with Michael Weiss
During this course, I learned how to teach mathematics in an innovative way, and examined how students process and understand new concepts. Given the current trend towards Common Core Standards, students were expected the plan and implement lessons that aligned with standards and utilize a new approach selected and researched by us. Using Lampert’s (2001) book, Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching, we learned how to utilize student mistakes in math to jumpstart a classroom dialogue, providing us an opportunity to “see” student thinking. We also learned the importance of shifting math instruction away from a focus on memorization and frequent assessments, and instead, to rely on formative assessment to drive instruction. My final project for this course focused on the use of Problem Based Learning in the classroom, and how that helps students to analyze and apply math concepts to solve complex, real world problems.
Spring 2014
CEP 832 Educating Students with Challenging Behavior with Vicky Mousouli
This course fulfilled my desire to acquire new and effective strategies for addressing behavior issues within the classroom without a disruption to learning. With classrooms full of a variety of learning abilities, much of a teacher’s time is often devoted to meeting academic demands, and we often fail to adequately modify our teaching to accommodate those who are “tough to teach.” This course provided tools for helping these students and required a semester-long case study during which we attempted new techniques and reported on their success with our chosen student. We studied an array of behavior problems in depth and through readings and discussions with colleagues, assessed how to assist our students in overcoming them. Included in our studies was working with children who display behaviors that are aggressive, angry and impulsive as well as students who are shy, withdrawn and socially isolated, and finally those who are low achieving or failure syndrome children. This course was incredibly useful to me, as my undergraduate coursework did not sufficiently prepare me to work with students who demonstrate these characteristics.
Summer 2014
TE 831 Teaching School Subject Matter with Technology with Doug Hartman
I decided to take this course due to my lack of knowledge and comfort involved with integrating new technologies into my instruction, and also teach in a school where there is little funding for technology. This course offered me the opportunity to revamp my teaching by exploring new technology tools and figuring out how I could incorporate them to align with my curricular and learning goals. I was introduced to several beneficial resources and was required to select a lesson that I had previously taught without technology and “repurpose” it with a piece of technology I had minimal experience using. This course has opened my eyes to the limitless possibilities for technology in the classroom and made me realize the value it can add to lessons across all subject areas.
ED 870 Capstone with Matt Koehler
This is the culminating class of my master’s program and appropriately asks me to reflect on my journey through my courses, the evolution of my goals, as well as my future as a learner. With the help and support of my professors and colleagues and their regular constructive feedback, I will compile this information and create my online professional portfolio. The goal of my portfolio is to showcase the work I have done throughout the MAED program, as well as outline my intentions following graduation. I appreciate this course granting me the opportunity to think about how my coursework and experiences have made me the teacher I am today.
Internship Courses
These courses were required as a component of Michigan State University’s fifth year internship program for education graduates. During this time, I completed three classes: TE 802 (Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practice) with Renee Wohl, TE 803 (Professional Roles and Teaching Practice) also with Renee Wohl, and TE 804 (Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practice II) with Wayne Hewitt. While enrolled, I was also student teaching, and applying the skills gained from my classes into my instruction practice. The classes helped me to perfect the art of lesson planning, learn how to differentiate for an array of learning abilities in the classroom, and align state and national standards with learning objectives. I was engaged in a semester long inquiry-based assignment which required working with students of varying ability levels in literacy and identifying strategies to meet their needs as well as challenge them. Throughout these courses, we also planned and implemented unit plans for math, science, and social studies. Though rigorous and challenging, the internship year was a valuable experience and helped me refine my skills prior to beginning my career as an educator.
Spring 2013
TE 861A Teaching Science for Understanding with Michelle Williams
I enrolled in this course in order to enhance my teaching of science and to become more familiar with the shift in national standards. One of the main focuses of this class was utilizing formative assessments to become more effective in our instruction and to move away from the memorization approaches often used in science classrooms today. We examined and used the Next Generation Science Standards to plan and teach a unit study, and reflected on our experience in a final essay. I chose to execute a lesson based on my students’ misconception surrounding the reason for changing seasons, which was successful due to the use of frequent formative assessments and hands-on experiments conducted. This course helped me gain strategies to successfully assess for student understanding and application of new science concepts and ideas.
Summer 2013
TE 846 Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners with Kari Richards
This course is associated with the State of Michigan Reading Requirement and focused on five main literacy instructional and assessment practices: cultural and linguistic differences, individual motivation differences, neuropsychological differences, instructional arrangements to accommodate learning differences, and required components of effective literacy instruction. We learned how to successfully modify and plan literacy lessons to meet the specific needs of learners from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The final project required me to conduct a student literacy assessment and analysis of two students in my class. My case study examined the disparity between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension. The driving question for the research considered whether or not oral fluency rates on a particular reading level coincided with a thorough comprehension, measured by the subjects’ ability to identify main idea and provide details.
ED 800 Educational Inquiry with Steven Weiland
ED 800 is an introductory course to the Masters of Education program and allows students to explore the foundations of our educational system. It is a self-paced course broken into six units and offers assignments in reading, listening and viewing. It is through the works of past and current education pioneers that students learn to fully develop their personal teaching philosophies and examine the role of education and the many forms of inquiry related to it. This course opened my eyes to the many education philosophies and offered me the opportunity to analyze and critique research and reforms both past and present.
Fall 2013
TE 855 Teaching School Mathematics with Michael Weiss
During this course, I learned how to teach mathematics in an innovative way, and examined how students process and understand new concepts. Given the current trend towards Common Core Standards, students were expected the plan and implement lessons that aligned with standards and utilize a new approach selected and researched by us. Using Lampert’s (2001) book, Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching, we learned how to utilize student mistakes in math to jumpstart a classroom dialogue, providing us an opportunity to “see” student thinking. We also learned the importance of shifting math instruction away from a focus on memorization and frequent assessments, and instead, to rely on formative assessment to drive instruction. My final project for this course focused on the use of Problem Based Learning in the classroom, and how that helps students to analyze and apply math concepts to solve complex, real world problems.
Spring 2014
CEP 832 Educating Students with Challenging Behavior with Vicky Mousouli
This course fulfilled my desire to acquire new and effective strategies for addressing behavior issues within the classroom without a disruption to learning. With classrooms full of a variety of learning abilities, much of a teacher’s time is often devoted to meeting academic demands, and we often fail to adequately modify our teaching to accommodate those who are “tough to teach.” This course provided tools for helping these students and required a semester-long case study during which we attempted new techniques and reported on their success with our chosen student. We studied an array of behavior problems in depth and through readings and discussions with colleagues, assessed how to assist our students in overcoming them. Included in our studies was working with children who display behaviors that are aggressive, angry and impulsive as well as students who are shy, withdrawn and socially isolated, and finally those who are low achieving or failure syndrome children. This course was incredibly useful to me, as my undergraduate coursework did not sufficiently prepare me to work with students who demonstrate these characteristics.
Summer 2014
TE 831 Teaching School Subject Matter with Technology with Doug Hartman
I decided to take this course due to my lack of knowledge and comfort involved with integrating new technologies into my instruction, and also teach in a school where there is little funding for technology. This course offered me the opportunity to revamp my teaching by exploring new technology tools and figuring out how I could incorporate them to align with my curricular and learning goals. I was introduced to several beneficial resources and was required to select a lesson that I had previously taught without technology and “repurpose” it with a piece of technology I had minimal experience using. This course has opened my eyes to the limitless possibilities for technology in the classroom and made me realize the value it can add to lessons across all subject areas.
ED 870 Capstone with Matt Koehler
This is the culminating class of my master’s program and appropriately asks me to reflect on my journey through my courses, the evolution of my goals, as well as my future as a learner. With the help and support of my professors and colleagues and their regular constructive feedback, I will compile this information and create my online professional portfolio. The goal of my portfolio is to showcase the work I have done throughout the MAED program, as well as outline my intentions following graduation. I appreciate this course granting me the opportunity to think about how my coursework and experiences have made me the teacher I am today.