MAED: My Experiences in Secondary Leadership and Literacy Education

 

My journey through this master’s program has been both enlightening and challenging. Originally, I had thought to complete this program in three years, taking one course per semester and throughout my summers, which as an educator are arguably less busy intellectually. Unfortunately, my loans that I received dictated that I become a half-time student for the duration of my program, or they would not fund me. I knew this when I entered the program, and still I was up for the challenge. I figured that by doing online courses, which had always come easier to me as someone brought up in the technological age, I could balance all of it well. When I decided this, I was halfway through my pregnancy with my first child.

 

Becoming a parent definitely affected the way I thought about my education. Upon entering my first courses for this degree, I no longer had as much “down time” in which to study and read, and many of my papers were written while my son napped on my other arm. Because he had many health issues when he was born (which are now resolved), I felt very stressed out, and incredibly sleep-deprived. Still, I made a very large effort to continue to teach well and complete my assignments on time for my degree. Thankfully, my grade point average never dropped below a 3.5.

Then, this past summer, I found out rather suddenly that I was pregnant again, with my second child. Currently, my baby is due in late April. Unfortunately, with this child, I have been on bed rest and in the hospital through most of my capstone course and last Leadership class because of a pregnancy complication called Hyperemesis Gravidarum. It is basically an intense form of morning sickness which forces the mother to be on IV fluids around the clock, and monitored very closely for starvation. I must admit that having a toddler, teaching, working on master’s classes, and trying to stay out of the hospital for more than two days at a time has been a challenge. Because of all of these issues, when I receive my MAED (Master’s in Education) in December, I will definitely feel accomplished in every way. I feel that I have persevered.

 

Certainly there have been specific courses in this program that I have taken that have altered the way that I currently teach my classes. I entered this program with the goal of making myself into a better teacher for students who struggle with literacy, and also to further myself in my own organization by taking classes that would help me understand how to lead better in a secondary school.

 

A class that definitely helped me accomplish my first goal of becoming a better literacy teacher was TE 846: Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners. During the course of this class, I was not only instructed in the theories of how different people learn, but I was also given concrete resources such as tactics, worksheets, and ways of instruction that would help foster student learning in my English classes. One thing that stood out to me was that conversation in the secondary English classroom surrounding novels and literary themes is absolutely essential. It helps students who are learning the English language to see the sense in the patterns presented by literature that is difficult to comprehend, but at the same time expands the thinking of those who take the written word at face value, forcing them to contemplate author intent, symbolism, and even the facets of voice at a younger age than post-secondary schooling. Scaffolding discussions is one of the biggest jobs of the secondary English teacher, and many different ways to do this were elaborated on and modeled by the way my own course was laid out. This was very helpful to me.

 

Another technique that I thought was very interesting was some of the graphic organizers that I was given. Many of them I recognized from my own learning when I had attended middle or elementary school, but the way of the graphic organizer in the modern English class has been pushed more and more out of the secondary classrooms as of late in favor of more technological, project-based learning. My principal would say that anything we include, we must consider what we are excluding by process. This means that when you focus more on one thing, you have sacrificed classroom time that was originally allotted for something else. The problem with modern teaching is that there isn’t enough time for everything that we would theoretically like to, or even need to do with our students. Getting the literacy perspective of not only the optional incorporation of, but rather the need for more tactile, concrete learning like that of my own past, was certainly eye-opening. Those that struggle need it, and the format is easily altered for higher-achieving students.

 

The class EAD 801: Leadership and Organizational Development, was also eye-opening for me. There was an aspect of this course that spoke to me as not only an educator, but also as a person that is an integral part of the machine of the public school. During this class, we read a book that was titled How Stella Saved the Farm, which at first glance, seems more like a young adult fictional novel about sheep and an actual farm. When reading this particular work, however, I realized that much of this novel had to do with the difficulty of working with varied personnel that were usually in one type of jam or another, and analyzing how no-win scenarios can be best dealt with. This book and the discussions my peers and I had about it were very interesting, thoughtful, and gave me a little bit more understanding and finesse in dealing with my own co-workers. In that way, I believe that it has helped my career immensely.

 

CEP 832: Educating Students with Challenging Behavior was a course that I didn’t realize I had to take upon applying for this program, but it made sense when I saw it on my program planning form. I learned a lot from this class, and the individual case study that I did, concentrating on one student was definitely beneficial to not only me, but also the student in question. A lot of the course was centered around understanding the context of each student in order to understand their behavior. Each week would begin with a scenario that all of the graduate students would observe or read, and write a first reaction to. We had many animated discussions surrounding these cases. Then we would read and watch snippets of videos and become instructed in the reasons that this student would act that way, and this way of learning always gave me an “aha!” moment. I loved to be able to see how the minds of the parents and professionals that dealt with this student worked, and what ended up helping or hindering that child succeed. It gave me much more insight into my own students, and I was grateful for the course, though it didn’t directly correspond to literacy or leadership. In the end, what I realized was that really, this course would help me to be a better leader, and teach students better literacy once their problems had been eradicated or controlled within the environment of my classroom. Honestly, I think that every educator should take this class. It was phenomenal and certainly helped greatly with my teaching empathy.

 

Another course that helped me greatly was actually my elective, which was a very difficult course (not what someone would normally associate with the word “elective”). Many students dropped this course in the first few weeks because of its complexity and the very high standards and massive amounts of reading associated with it. It was TE 850: Critical Reading for Children and Adolescents. I felt that this was a good course to take as an English teacher, and honestly had very different expectations of the text that we were going to read than ultimately, I ended up learning. I expected it to be about mostly nonfiction and analyzing it, but the Young Adult Fiction that was incorporated into this course was very compelling, and very “Envelope-pushing” for lack of better words. Many of the novels explored taboo subjects for young people and as a student in the course, I was forced to recognize that different types of literature can only be analyzed within their own context, and there are many authors breaking out of context altogether: they refuse to be defined. So where can we learn with our students in relationship to this? Was really the question that I had to ask myself. Since taking this course, I have become more aware of the conversations that students have with literature, whether written or spoken, and have learned a lot about textuality and making sure that I offer multiple perspectives on writing, and encourage multiple interpretations, if they can be backed up with the text. I also had this class as my first on wordpress.com, and since have incorporated this website into my own 8th grade classroom as a blogging hub, which the students absolutely love. They can comment on other stories and feel special and like their work matters. It has been a great experience that has translated directly into my classroom.

 

My thinking and practice as a whole hasn’t taken a colossal shift as a result of this master’s program, but I think that my learning has been accelerated in different areas of my professional life. This was exactly what I expected from my master’s degree, so I certainly wasn’t disappointed by these results! I take more risks now with my students in content and delivery than I had before, because I feel more comfortable with the way that my school works. I have been friendlier with staff, feeling less comfort as someone who slides under the radar. I teach students now with a better mindfulness of their differing levels of literacy, and attempt to engage them in conversation and activities that foster their learning in relationship of analyzing text critically and understanding its meaning. I also use more technology and alternate “literacies” to engage students who are imbedded in a technological way of life already. This has been huge to my teaching.

 

I have also learned a lot about myself throughout this journey. I have learned that tough things are going to happen and that persevering through it is worth it in the end. I have become a fighter, someone who will battle for what they want. I now have guts and realize that I am a strong woman. Prior to completing this master’s degree I have been a very passive person in general. This can sometimes be interesting in someone who is as outgoing as I am, but I have learned that being outgoing is not synonymous with being a leader. I feel that I am much more prepared now in that particular aspect of my professional growth.

 

I have also learned that the online world is one of the best ways that I learn personally. I remember feeling so out of place in large lecture halls, and getting poor marks on exams though my attention was thorough and my notes were immaculate. I am not one who learns well by listening, and that is okay. I am much better at multimedia and reading, and now I know that about myself and have my highlighters and books ready. I also can more easily recognize this in others, which is very helpful in my career of teaching.

 

I cannot say for sure what the future holds for me: a potential leadership position at my school, more schooling (after a while), or even just going to conferences for a while to continue my education. Whatever it is the future holds, understanding the course content of this degree was certainly a valuable use of my time.