Fast Forward
By: Nicole Jenkins
As I approach the end of my master’s program this summer and prepare for my fifth year of teaching, I realize the importance of reflecting back on my experiences over the past five years and recognizing how far I have come in my career. As an educator always striving to learn more and become the most effective teacher I can be, reflection is an essential component that allows me to celebrate my successes and also set goals for myself for the future.
When I applied for Michigan State University’s Master of Arts in Education in the spring of 2008, I set goals for myself focused on learning to more efficiently differentiate instruction to better meet the needs of all of my learners and to learn new techniques and methods of teaching literacy to help my students become proficient readers and writers. These are two goals I have carried with me throughout my first four years of teaching and are areas I feel I will always continue to strive to improve upon.
The knowledge I have gained through my master’s courses as well as my experiences in my second grade and kindergarten classrooms have pushed me to become a competent, effective teacher. I have learned strategies to challenge all of my students at their individual levels and have created lessons that excite my students and help them develop a love of learning. My recent knowledge of Universal Design for Learning has helped me to develop lessons from the start that engage all learners, meet various learning styles, and allow students to interact with and demonstrate understanding of material in ways that are meaningful to them. An ongoing goal I have for myself in relation to meeting the needs of all of my students is to continue trying to incorporate UDL in my classroom as I believe the flexibility of this approach gives students more ownership of their learning and allows them to build on their individual strengths.
I did change my concentration area from literacy to special education about half way through my master’s program. I felt confident in my ability to teach literacy largely due to the thorough Literacy Collaborative training I went through at my school during my first year of teaching. I felt that I could benefit more from learning new techniques to meet the needs of my diverse learners. Classes are comprised of such a large range of ability levels and I was eager to learn new methods of dealing with behavior problems and students’ unique needs. I felt that each one of my Special Education courses was extremely beneficial and provided me with strategies that I could right away implement with my own students. Making this switch of concentration areas was the right choice for me as the knowledge I gained helped me to achieve the goals I set for myself. I now feel much more adept in tailoring my teaching methods according to my students’ needs and interests. I also not only recognize the importance of taking measures to build students’ self efficacy and teach social skills, but have a repertoire of strategies to do this.
All in all, my master’s courses have been worthwhile and assisted me in becoming a more effective and influential teacher. I will continue to carry the goals I set for myself with me as they are areas I can continue to strive to improve upon in the future.