Every Day is a Chance to Learn
Lisa Hansen
After four years of teaching, I continue to be amazed. Amazed by the fact that a classroom of five and six year olds can teach me so much. Each day my students introduce me to new facets of life. Understanding that there are two sides to every story. Showing compassion to others when they are having a rough day. Discovering new movies, television shows, and lyrics to songs. Lessons on patience and forgiveness. Learning to let go of things that are not a big deal. Without my students, I am unsure of what kind of person I would be today. Each of my students unknowingly shapes my outlook on life, my teaching style and management techniques, and my attitudes toward student success.
While I reflect on these lessons and morals taught from my students, I also need to credit other educators and co-workers for all that they teach me in life. The co-workers that I interact with daily instill in me values of cooperation, open mindedness, flexibility, and unyielding dedication towards a common goal. I need to give credit where credit is due. My students and co-workers are two major influences in my life that help me to continue on as a learner, even if it is without direct instruction.
When I first applied for the Master of Arts in Education at Michigan State, I had put little thought into which program I wanted to pursue for my degree. I figured that I would apply for the general MAED degree, since I was a newly hired educator that was focused on strengthening and reflecting on my teaching style. Yet after exploring classes in technology and getting a taste of that lifestyle, I would love to further enhance my learning by also obtaining a Master of Arts in Educational Technology degree through MSU. Though this may be put on hiatus for a while, as an educator, I feel it is never too late to learn something new! Nonetheless, completing my entire master’s degree online has been an impressive feat, to say the least!
Photo Credits:
Raised Hands: http://www.30hands.net/page/services
AimsWeb Logo: http://www.aimsweb.com
The Future of Lifelong Learning: http://www.knewton.com/blog/author/christina/
Each year my school seems to incorporate more technology and online training for teachers, yet our technology available to students still leaves a lot to be desired. We have an ancient computer lab with about 20 desktop computers (any number of which fail to work on a given day). We’ve got computers missing headphones, computers without properly working sound, lap top computers that are missing power adaptors. Not exactly an educator’s dream for incorporating technology into students learning. But with all these technological setbacks, also comes my resilience and relentlessness for creating an authentic learning environment in my classroom. I bring in my personal iPad from home for educational use, I boot up our four (terribly slow) classroom computers each chance I get, and I incorporate videos and multi-media productions into my lessons. I can thankfully credit my inspiration to the classes that I have taken through Michigan State while pursuing my Master of Arts in Education degree. I was able to see that even a little exposure to external mediums and creative culture can inspire students, and my ultimate goal as a learner is to continue exploring ways to create technologically authentic learning experiences for my students.
As a school, we are transitioning to incorporating the Aimsweb assessments for both reading and mathematics for our students. This transition also requires a two-day staff training that will be held on Saturdays. Yes… Saturdays. Is education a 9-5 job? Not a chance. Our Aimsweb training also utilizes a ‘flipped instruction’ model of learning. We are asked to watch six online instructional videos detailing how to administer each test. Our onsite instruction will then allow us more time to “practice” our skills as administers, since we have already received the background information need for each of the assessments. As an elementary school teacher, I have heard the buzz of “flipped instruction” being practiced at the high school level. I am interested to test this theory of practice out for myself.