Megan E. Rosenbaum
Masters of Educational Technology Portfolio
It All Comes Together
What does it mean to me to be a teacher? For most of my life I have known what I wanted to do, I always knew what my next step was going to be well in advance. From a young age I knew I wanted to attend Michigan State University and from an even younger age I identified that I wanted to be a teacher. Even as my interests evolved and life’s decision began to take on more importance throughout the years, I knew what my next move was. Whether personal or professional, I have always thrived thanks in part to having a strong sense of self and well-defined life goals. Along my path I have taken time to reflect, yet have always had my next move in mind, feeling comfortable in knowing what would come next for me. My pre-planned life’s goals ranged from childhood aspirations to knowing that one day as a teacher, I would get a Master’s degree.
As I made plans to complete my degree work through MSU, I tried to select a program that sounded interesting to me, but to be honest, besides simply completing my degree, and completing this next, pre-planned career aspiration, I had very few other expectations or goals I hoped to achieve through my program work. Completing this degree was just something I had always planned on doing, and was going to complete. I hadn’t stopped to really consider how all of this could effect me or my teaching. I hoped I would enjoy my coursework, but beyond that knew I just needed to get it done. Now, as I near the end of the my Master’s in Educational Technology (MAET) degree, and as I reflect on the experiences and opportunities it has provided, I am left with a lot to reflect on: How will I use the experience and knowledge I gained from my coursework to grow and extend myself as a professional? Where will this milestone lead me to? Now that all I have completed all of my planned career aspirations, what will be my next step as an educator?
After examining both individual courses I have completed as well as looking over my entire experience in the MAET program I can say that I have gained invaluable experiences and powerful insight into my aspiration, role, and future as an educator.
With each course that I completed my appreciation for the importance of higher education grew and my understanding and insight into the value of continued education for teachers developed. Each course provided me many useful tools and pedagogical resources to more effectively educate in a 21st century classroom. For example while taking CEP 810, Teaching for Understanding with Technology, and CEP 800, Learning in School and Other Settings, I was introduced to the vast array of technologies used within education today, and had time to experiment with and examine many of these technological tools. With the numerous professional development opportunities I am provided with by my district, I am often told I am seeing “the latest” in terms of the technology that can enhance the learner’s experiences within a classroom, yet most of the times I either don’t have the time to experiment with these resources, or am left feeling overwhelmed with a multitude of sites and tools to use, with no feedback or support for using them. These two courses specifically allowed me time to really see how specific technology and technology-based teaching strategies could benefit me and my classroom. These courses highlighted an important feature in regard to technology use in the classroom, which is to find and use technology that can either enhance what is already being done within the classroom or technology that can provide opportunities for learners that they otherwise would not get. These courses allowed me an opportunity to see how technology can organically be infused into the classroom and my teaching, how it can be a benefit and support, rather than a burden or requirement. In addition, these courses provided a platform for discussion and collaboration with peers from around the globe as they implemented and experimented with these same technologies and teaching strategies. I finally had the time and support I needed to feel proficient enough to utilize these innovative technologies in my classroom. Additionally, CEP 810 and 800 guided me into seeing the importance of widening one’s viewpoint, expanding sources of information and general personal network. This has had a large effect of my approach to teaching. Even if we don’t want to admit it, as teachers it is very easy to get stuck in our ways, give into the comfort of familiarity, and in turn put limits on our viewpoints and perspectives of new or different information and knowledge. This in and of itself contradicts one of the central pedagogical lessons that a teacher tries to instill on their students: always be open minded and question information and knowledge; truly understand presented material, don’t simply accept it. These courses encouraged me to take pause and assess if how I was presenting my students and myself with new resources and information was truly unbiased, or was I continuing to use information and teaching strategies that were more familiar and comfortable to me.
As my perspectives widened, CEP 811, Adapting Innovative Technologies in Education, began to expand my view on what education should look like within a high school. In today’s world, what should we be providing students? This course changed my approach to teaching by introducing me to the Maker Movement and the emphasizing the importance in creativity and innovation within all aspects the classroom. Prior to taking this course, I felt creativity was something that was compartmentalized to certain activities: sometimes students had the opportunity to be more creative with their work, and other times it wasn’t necessary. Yet after taking this course, creativity within the classroom has taken on an entirely new meaning. I started to see the importance of creativity in places I never had before: how students interface with material and knowledge and how students obtain new information. Most importantly, creativity leads to creation, and creation is an essential component in developing innovative thinkers, creating a generation of makers and problems solvers instead of passive observers. In addition, CEP 811 was one of the first classes that truly put me back into the student role. I was being asked to learn, experiment and make things using resources and tools that I was unfamiliar with. My skill set was being challenged as I re-familiarized myself with the perseverance and willingness to try and even fail. These are qualities that are all necessary in successful learners, yet as a teacher these characteristics had faded. This class engendered the start of one of the bigger revelations I have had from completing my coursework: I began to both see and feel the importance of opening one’s mind up to growing as a learner.
One of the last classes I completed within my degree work was CEP 817, Learning Technology by Design, a course that focused on the design process. Although this course helped to further my now heightened appreciation for continued education it also ended up being the missing link to my Master’s degree education. This course provided me the final and most essential resource and experience I needed: the ability to design lessons and implement all of the amazing ideas and experiences I had acquired through my degree work. While working through the Stanford Design Thinking Model, I honed the craft of building effective lessons and in the process, this course changed the way I view the world, it made me a designer. I had never been introduced to design as a formal process to be learned and studies. And over the course of this class, my eyes were opened to how powerful a classroom module can be when approached through the lens of a designer. This course thus contributed to my personal transformation, showing me how eye-opening the world of design is, something so simple, yet so essential to teaching.
While the different classes had various profound effects on specific elements of my teaching, after taking time to reflect on my experience as a whole, all of my coursework and experiences have steered me toward one singular idea that has changed me as an educator: always remember to be both a teacher and a student. I will never stop learning and never stop opening myself up to new experiences and information, and this program ignited this lifelong pursuit.
As a teacher, sometimes we naturally fall into roles of authority and all knowing, often burdened and pressured by the parameters and restraints placed on what can and cannot be done and what needs to happen versus what could happen, sometimes with very little time to stop, reflect on or even consider one’s goals and purpose. This degree program has taught me to break out of this in order to be a better learner and thus a better teacher. All of the experiences that I have accumulated to help students and all I have studied to enhance the experience of my students, has actually acted as a lesson for me. Like I hope for and have tried to impart to my students, I need to remain open-minded to new ideas, different resources and perspective, I need to never veer away from things that seem difficult or too challenging as an educator, I need to be okay with experimentation and learning from failure/failed attempts, and redefining what teaching means to me. After completing all of my coursework for my Master’s degree the thing that has most affected me as a teacher is seeing that to be a better teacher, to truly utilize the seemingly unlimited information and resources I have gained, I need to continue to be a student myself. Otherwise, I will never grow or improve from a certain point, and my teaching will stagnate. This is what this degree program has provided me. More than any hour-long professional development session, or staff meeting, my MAET degree has reminded me of the value of my education.
Often teachers who find a good district with supportive colleagues to work with can spend their lives dedicated to that school and that community. Year after year, group after group of students, teachers often times find their comfort zone, their niche, and settle in, closing themselves off to so much of the changing world of education. It’s easy to do: teaching the same content, working under the same administration, in the same district, and in the same classroom, teacher can very easily become creatures of habit, very structured in their ways. Once this comfort level is established, teachers can often lose sight of a fundamental part of their job, and a key ingredient to having a passion for education. The key ingredient that my Master’s of Educational Technology degree work has reminded me. This experience has shown me the immense benefit in a continued education for educators. With completing my Master’s degree being pre-planned milestone along my life’s path, my expectation for learning something new, something that would truly change me as a teacher was not intended or even expected, but it has nonetheless occurred. I have enjoyed challenging my brain, my thinking and my perspective as an educator and gained invaluable experience that has changed me as a teacher, and really as an individual.
To truly grow and develop professionally, we have to be open to change, willing to embrace the unexpected and be malleable with our expectations. As I complete my degree program, checking off another box on my life’s to do list, I am refreshed with the knowledge and perspective this program has provided me. I had originally hoped to simple enjoy my coursework yet have gained and grown more than I could have ever imagined. This program has provide my mind a breathe of fresh air, filled with valuable experiences and knowledge. After taking time for reflection, I now feel I know, what it means to me to be a teacher and have begun to see what my next steps as a teacher will be. I am passionate educator, I am a teacher, and I am a lifelong learner.
