Annotated Transcript of my Graduate Program at Michigan State University

 

Fall 2015   

EAD 863 Training & Professional Development  

Professor Arnold

This class was a course in leadership. It was mainly centered around developing professional opportunities for others based on professional needs. It laid out a common scheme to assess needs, allocate resources, and work to create a professional atmosphere that was cooperative and learning-friendly. It also discussed troubleshooting options for issues that arise in the leadership of staff development.

 

ED 870 Capstone Seminar

Professor Koehler

This class was a conclusion of the master's degree that I pursued. It was about developing an online presence that tied all of my educational background in with skills that I have acquired in my professional life. It incorporated web design in with pdfs, linkable resources, and background information. It included essays, transcripts, a resume and cover letters, as well as a review of the major projects I have taken on in my academic life.

 

Summer 2015       

EAD 860 Concept of a Learning Society 

Professor Weiland

This class was more of an overview of how people learn in general. It discussed the modes and options available to those who seek learning in their lives, and how people pick up new skills. The content ranged from acquiring new languages to understanding at an older age that skills like piano playing can still be understood. Formal classrooms, at-home research, and web-based learning were all covered extensively in this course.

 

TE 843 Secondary Reading Assessment & Instruction 

Professor Coles

Much of this course was in understanding the way students read and why they should read particular sources. Time was taken to discuss literacy and how different literacies come into play within the modern classroom context. Beyond this, the course discussed assessment in reading as a fluid concept, being derived from instruction and conversation based on literature read.

 

Spring 2015     

CEP 832 Educating Students with Challenging Behavior 

Professors Mousouli and Oka

This class discussed how behaviors in children and adolescents look first, to outsiders, and then took a deeper look at the students' background and personal issues that created a moment people easily judge. It discussed difficult situations with parents and support teams in dealing with students who struggle either behaviorally, or academically (which becomes a behavioral problem) and how to  help these students succeed.

 

TE 848 Writing Assessment & Instruction 

Professor Smith

This class was very interesting, because the major project it required was to write in a genre that was uncomfortable for the instructor, and then to edit and revise, and ultimately asses our own progress in this genre. In this way, we were better able to study the process and pedagogy of writing in that particular way. For my genres, I chose poetry and argumentative paper, and now I actually use a lot of the techniques I gathered in this course to instruct my seventh and eighth grade students in the art of argument.

 

Fall 2014       

EAD 801 Leadership & Organization Development 

Professor Arnold

The major text for this course that was memorable was How Stella Saved the Farm, which was an interesting barnyard romp that projected beautifully the problems that organizations face, attempting to keep up with technological advances, and with dealing with personalities in the workplace Innovative thinking was promoted in this book and in this course, but leadership qualities such as listening carefully and accepting mentorship were also approached.

 

TE 850 Critical Reading for Children & Adolescents 

Professor Wargo

The bulk of this course was in textual interpretation and defining the word "critical." Many texts that were for younger and older audiences within the realm of childhood to Young Adult literature were approached from cultural, gender, and historical points of view. Controversy in literature was discussed, as well as (text)uality and discovery of genres within genres in the classroom.

 

 

Summer 2014   

ED 800 Concepts of Educational Inquiry

Professor Weiland

This course was about understanding that those who want to learn will learn and those that do not want to learn, will have no trouble avoiding it. There are specific components involved in attempting to access learning for oneself in modern society, and this class covered those requirements in both personality and resources.

 

TE 846 Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners 

Professor Zhang

This class was about differentiation, to put it simply. Not all learners learn the same way, and we as teachers must instruct to the vast majority of different learners in different ways. A lot of this course was about providing students with multiple ways to access materials. IN my own classes, I try to have something online to review each lesson I instruct, as well as paper copies, and visual aids. Some learners need even more beyond this, and the trick is to identify those students and to give them what they need to succeed.