From Past to Present, I Must Look Back By Jacklyn Smith
Four years ago, I walked into my teaching role in Pontiac, Michigan having no idea what to expect. When I got the job, the Dean of Academics walked me through and showed me what was to be my first grade classroom. When I looked at the room I expected a Smart Board, but there was not. There was a small 24 inch TV to project videos on and a whiteboard to show students what to do. I expected a full computer cart with one to one technology, and there was not that. The first grade team was expected to share 24 computers between three different classrooms. I would have to go into my teaching partner’s room every day, collect eight computers and bring them back by the end of the day. Noticing these certain features already had me doubting how much success I would have in that classroom. However, I made it work. The kids were challenging, but they learned and had fun. We made projects using paper glue, scissors, and wrote in creative ways. My students enjoyed making a sentence man or a robot to help represent place value. However, for this to work, I spent a majority of my time at night outside of the classroom creating stations for reading and math, and spent many nights with my 8x11 laminator. I learned how to be the best teacher I could with the little I got. Two years into my teaching career, or three weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic, I switched schools to a school where my friend was teaching. I decided to teach there due to the several resources I knew I would be able to get. My room had a smart board and a white board, the room was left with several supplies to teach first graders and I knew I was where I needed to be. All that was missing was the one to one technology that I eventually received this past year after the students were virtual due to the pandemic in the 2020-2021 school year. Through these two experiences in different districts, I realized that there is always more that I will need. I am never going to be a perfect teacher, but I can strive to be. Through both experiences, the student’s parents questioned my expertise, experience, decisions, and judgment. Being told these things to my face continues to throw me off track, but I have continued to pick myself back up time and time again. Being in urban underfunded schools has broken my heart time and time again, but giving love to the students, setting high expectations, and showing my expertise were all I needed for respect. Throughout this time, I undertook the challenge of completing my Masters of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) Program through Michigan State University. Being a young teacher, I knew there were so many more ways to teach children rather than just the traditional paper and pencil. I had actually wanted to incorporate technology into my teaching and I just did not know how. Going into the MAET program, I wanted to be more confident in all pedagogical strategies and learn how to properly use technology in the classroom. However, from my time in the program, I received so much more than just that. Through the program, I now have the desire to become a leader in my district, and to help other teachers navigate their way through properly integrating technology. On a larger scale, I now want to continue my education through dialogues around education,technology,and through my professional learning network that I have online and in-person. Allowing myself to complete my education has allowed me to show up and be my best self for my students and myself as a teacher. The courses that I have taken through MAET allowed me to learn how to be intentional, creative, and how to be a leader. There are three experiences as a MAET student that stand out to me that represent the learning I have done.
One class that has had an impact was CEP 810 Teaching and Understanding with Technology. CEP 810 provided me with a new framework for technology integration. TPACK stands for technological pedagogical content knowledge, which is a special framework for teachers to consider when integrating technology into lessons. TPACK focuses on how we teach, what we teach, and what technology is properly integrated into the lesson. Gaining an understanding of TPACK impacted my teaching and lesson planning because I was able to understand how to support students with technology. Understanding TPACK has allowed me to make meaningful content accessible and how to use the appropriate tools to do so.
Another piece of content from CEP 810 that affected my teaching is 21st century learning. 21st Century Learning promotes student centered learning, and allows students to prepare for their unknown future. This concept showed me four key skills needed to compete in today's world called the 4 C’s. The four C’s are collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking. Twenty first century learning shows that as a teacher I constantly need to keep adapting to 21st century skills that will allow for best outcomes. Another key component of CEP 810 was learning how to expand my Professional Learning Network (PLN) as a teacher and as a student. Having the ability to expand my PLN allowed me to find new ideas, explore new learning, and utilize these discoveries in my current classroom. With my personal learning network, I was able to expand my knowledge by participating in a Twitter chat, a way to connect with others in a real time conversation using a hashtag. Along with that, I joined several Facebook groups such as Bitmoji Craze for teachers, and started my own teacher Instagram account where I post the good and not so great ideas about teaching. Starting my own Instagram account and joining several Facebook groups has allowed me to have a wide network of other teachers and resources that I am able to implement and use in my classroom immediately. Expanding my PLN has been extremely beneficial as I have been able to continuously explore and connect with several of the resources.
In terms of leadership, the courseCEP 815 Technology and Leadership had a lasting impact on me. From a young age, I have taken on several leadership roles such as treasurer and program coordinator. I have always aspired to obtain leadership positions in my career. Truly, I enjoy the role and challenge which is why this course has shaped me as a leader. Within this course, I got to step into different leadership roles with a network. I got to experience different situations and assess what I would do as a leader.Some leaders may be opportunists, where some may be experts. It was interesting to see the different types of leaders and how they are incorporated into the workforce that we know. This all led to how I could incorporate different leadership strategies into different situations.
Through this course, I was able to create my own professional development to help other teachers have their students be more engaged in remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. I created a how to on drop and drag slides.With this assignment, I was able to present this to a group of kindergarten through third grade teachers. Teachers had time to learn about how to make drop and drag slides, learn the uses, and had time dedicated to practice this new skill. This assignment allowed me to learn how to present materials to adults and tailor the material to be the most beneficial to the teacher and their students. In CEP 815, I identified a “thorny issue” within my school. I looked at how technology classes are used for remediation in certain subjects instead of actual technology skills. I talked about the effectiveness of learning to code and use certain programs while making an infographic to showcase the information. This assignment allowed me to view something that is troublesome in education that needs to be addressed. As a future leader in education, I will be dealing with a variety of issues and have to see both sides in an effort to make change. It also expressed my creativity in the ability to write about the issue then transfer what is most important into an infographic.With this, I wrote a memo to share this vision. In writing this, I also wrote a local and global vision addressing proper technology integration.Writing both the global and local vision helped me analyze the role of educational technology in teaching and learning. Having a vision is important to move forward in education to create change.
During my graduate studies courses, I had three courses that allowed me to be creative while being intentional about what I was doing. The first course was CEP 818: Creativity in Teaching and Learning. Within this course, I concentrated on the topic of courage and perceived it in many ways through Tik-Tok, an infographic around courage, a poster, a poem and more. It made me realize the importance of allowing students to be creative. All students learn in different ways and it is my job to use that knowledge to differentiate my teaching and then allow students to show me they learned in the way that is best for them. In the course CEP 800:Learning in Schools and Different Settings,it redefined the way I see teaching. Through this course, I started my own theory of learning that I added on to each week. I explored learning in different ways. I learned about social learning through Pinterest. This class gave me the time to look at what habits are and how they affect our current learning. It shows how we can form new habits and change old habits. This class was able to help me see that learning is everywhere.
Lastly, CEP 820: Teaching Students Onlineallowed me to show off my creativity by creating an online course from start to finish. I learned about the different types of online learning and it got me to really think about what students truly need to be successful. One important aspect of the course was how much of a presence the teacher needs to be in the class, so students see you interacting with the material as well. The students need to see me as the teacher interacting with the material for them to feel engaged. In my module, I created videos for students so they could easily know what to do. Another thing that is important to an online course is having a communication policy. This creates ways for the student to interact with the teacher, but also shows students the policies of how to interact with other students.
As I look back on my time as a student in the MAET program, I am blown away by how fast these past two years went. The program met so much more than my original expectations of learning how to integrate technology intentionally and being more confident as a teacher.Through several courses and meaningful feedback from instructors, I confidently met both of those goals. The MAET led me to so much more! Now, I feel more confident to take on leadership roles within my district. I am a firm believer in using technology intentionally to help students to learn and not just to place it at any point in the day with no purpose. I feel that I can create materials for students with ease that are intentional and engage students with the learning. The knowledge and skills that I have learned from this program will allow for my students to have stronger learning experiences and therefore change the classroom for the better. Having the knowledge of 21st century skills, the TPACK framework, and new found leadership skills will allow my planning process to be more intentional and create better outcomes for my students.
I look forward to experiencing more leadership roles and having the opportunity to apply my new found knowledge and skills to peers in my workplace. I am so grateful for my learning experiences from Michigan State University and can not wait to see what the future holds as a lifelong learner.