"It is in endings that we discover some of the most beautiful and meaningful beginnings."
-Dhiman
.
.
.
In about four weeks, I will be wrapping up the final two required courses of my program and will be awarded my Master of Arts in Educational Technology degree. As this chapter closes, I have found myself reflecting on the ways in which the last year and a half have forever changed my personal and professional life. In February 2022, I applied to Michigan State University's Master of Arts in Educational Technology program (MSU MAET), transferring 9 credits I had already completed through my teaching internship year at MSU, with 21 remaining credits to complete. Over the course of those 21 credits, I have experienced an infinite amount of growth, mindset shifts, and confidence that I could not even have imagined when I clicked the "submit" button on my application in 2022.
As I have noted through various posts on my blog, there is not much more important to my personal life and professional life than taking time to pause and reflect. Today, when writing this
blog post and reflecting upon my time as a graduate student, I experienced both an overwhelming sense of pride and an overwhelming sense of longing and sadness. However, unlike past endings I have experienced, I noticed the absence of a particular feeling that tends to outweigh any feelings of pride or sadness: fear. Throughout the course of my life, the closing of chapters, whether big or small, have always brought upon extreme fear for what comes next. From completing high school and moving into college, to ending my internship year and starting my first year of teaching, fear has always been a front-seat passenger in my life. However, for the very first time in my life, as I close the chapter of my graduate degree program, fear has moved to the very back seat, leaving room for new feelings of pride, bitter sweetness, and finally, in the passenger seat: excitement.
Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone: Mindset for Innovation Overseas Cohort
When reflecting on the course of my graduate program, the experience that changed my life the most was the Master of Arts in Educational Technology Overseas Summer Cohort, which took place in Galway, Ireland. This program combined three courses into one four week course: Teaching for Understanding with Technology, Adapting Innovative Technologies to Education, and Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice. I experienced so many firsts through this program that helped me to not only step out of my comfort zone, but to also begin to view myself as a strong and capable human being. I travelled on an airplane by myself for the very first time. I travelled to Europe and crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the very first time. I became an expert in navigating public transport for the very first time. And, for the very first time, I realized the importance of stepping outside of my comfort zone and marveled in the experiences that it brought me, both personally and professionally.
Personally, this experience built my confidence and showed me that fear was not something to be afraid of, but something to embrace. Through facing my fears, I met eleven other graduate
educators that held differing beliefs, ideas, and philosophies regarding education. These educators challenged me to become a better educator and helped me see things from different perspectives. Three of those eleven educators (See left photo) I still visit about once a month now, despite living 2+ hours away from one another. When we get together, we chat about our lives, we discuss current issues within the education system and within our own contexts, and continuously learn from one another.
Professionally, I was challenged more than I ever had been before. The most memorable challenges being the Quickfires that we participated in during class, which was an assignment that asked us to create something within a time constraint. Creative has always been a word that I would use to describe myself, but for me, creativity takes time, so being asked to create something within a time constraint (sometimes even being as little time as 15 minutes!) pushed me to see that I can be creative even in a constrictive environment. It made me realize that creativity does not always mean perfectionism (the way I would have described myself prior to this experience), but can mean embracing mistake-making and trial and error.
Aside from becoming more creative, I was also challenged on various beliefs that I held as an educator. These were beliefs that were deeply rooted inside me, as most of them stemmed from my own experience as a student and learner. Although so deeply rooted, through my experience overseas, I came to realize that many of my beliefs did not align with current researched-based best practices. This overseas experience asked me to not only make these realizations, but to also challenge them and change/adapt them. For example, prior to this experience I believed that the concept of grades was the biggest factor in determining the level of effort that students put into a class. As a learner and a student, the grade that I received in a class was my main driving motivator. However, this belief that I held was immediately challenged the first day of class overseas, as my instructors explained that the MAET program had adopted an ungrading policy. This meant that all of our work throughout the course was not formally graded, but instead was evaluated by instructors for the purpose of providing valuable feedback. It was an expectation that after receiving this feedback, students analytically explored the feedback and revised their work in order to make it stronger. I can distinctly remember when my instructors first explained our ungrading policy for the overseas courses, and can picture exactly what it made me feel at that moment. I questioned if this grading practice would work for me, as I was always so motivated by grades, and I worried that the effort I put in to my work would decrease without this extrinsic factor. However, by the end of the first week of class, as we completed our last Quickfire of the week, I found myself for the very first time enjoying the process of completing work, and I was more interested in what feedback I would be given and how I could make my work stronger than I was interested in what letter grade would be assigned to my work.
My beliefs on grading and student motivation was not the only deeply rooted philosophy that was challenged throughout my time overseas. By the end of our fourth and final week, so many of my beliefs had been challenged, adapted, and changed, that I felt like a whole new educator, one that had changed for the better. I left Ireland with a newfound joy and excitement for the upcoming school year that was just a few weeks away, and I could not wait to implement and embrace all the new beliefs that I held.
Challenging the Purpose of Assessment: Electronic Assessment for Teaching and Learning
Fast forward a year later from when I left for the overseas cohort, I found myself again in the midst of taking summer classes toward my graduate degree. And, just like the overseas cohort experience, I found myself being challenged like never before. Currently, in the summer semester of 2023, I am finishing up my final two courses and will be earning my Master of Arts in Educational Technology degree in just a few short weeks. One of those two courses, Electronic Assessment for Teaching and Learning, is yet another course that has asked me to challenge my current beliefs and philosophies. Throughout this course, I have explored various components of assessment, including the historical foundations of assessment, bias in assessment, and new research-based assessment best practices. However, the most memorable exploration of this course was the creation of our own personal academic assessment philosophies. Shortly after the course had started, we were asked to create an academic assessment philosophy which outlined our current beliefs on assessment, and we could portray our ideas however we wanted to. So, like for most of my creations, I hopped onto Canva and began creating what would become my evolving philosophy: The Shoulds and Should Nots of Academic Assessment: A Work in Progress.
This creation asked me to use what I had learned about the historical foundations of assessment and the many ways that those foundations have excluded learners from being successful to create my own academic assessment philosophy that allowed for a more equitable experience for all learners. Through my research, I learned the importance of using assessments to provide feedback to students, form future instruction, and as an opportunity for students to make mistakes and reflect upon their own learning. My original belief of using assessment primarily as a way to provide a grade on a report card was immediately challenged. I now believe that assessment is much more than that. Assessment is no longer the end of the learning process, but the continuation of the learning process. It is a way for students to learn how to give and receive feedback, take risks and embrace mistake-making, and a way to continue to grow as a learner.
A Fearless Creator: Capstone Seminar
My final course of my master's program is the Capstone Seminar, a course designed as a culmination of the learning that took place during the course of my graduate program. This course takes the place of the traditional thesis course, and is essentially one large assessment that will be evaluated before I am awarded my degree. The Capstone Seminar revolves around one on-going and ever-changing assessment: an online portfolio. My online portfolio first came to be at the end of my student teaching internship in 2019. We were asked to create an online teaching portfolio that housed our downloadable resume, teaching philosophy, and examples of student work. The purpose of this portfolio was to use during teaching interviews and applications to showcase who we are as an educator. I could not have imagined at the time that my teaching portfolio would evolve to be a professional portfolio with various purposes that it holds today.
The ways in which my portfolio has changed since it's creation over four years ago is a true testament to how I have changed as an educator and creator during my time as a Master of Arts in Educational Technology graduate student. It holds concrete evidence of my growth throughout this time, from my first blog post written on June 29th, 2022, to my 20th blog post written on July 19, 2023. It showcases eight of my most cherished creations that were made throughout the course of my master's program. And, most of all, it exemplifies the new ways that I view myself, as a fearless creator who constantly seeks challenging opportunities.
Beautiful Beginnings: What is to Come
In four short weeks, I will have completed all 30 credits toward my Master of Arts in Educational Technology degree and come fall semester I will be walking alongside of two other educators I have met through this experience at our hooding ceremony. But, more importantly, in four short weeks, I will be starting my fourth year as a fifth grade teacher equipped with the tools and mindsets that I need to continue becoming a better educator. I would describe my time as a graduate student in the MAET program as a series of firsts. My first time travelling to Europe, my first time on an airplane by myself, and my first time feeling fearless. With the wrap up of this experience, I am in the midst of experiencing another, and arguably the most powerful first that I have ever experienced. For the first time, my life feels less like an uphill battle, and more like an uphill hike to a beautiful new beginning, and I owe a large portion of that mindset transition to Michigan State University's Master of Arts in Educational Technology and the experiences that it has offered me.
Cover Photo Source: Created by Mary Verberg on Canva.
Comments