Future Learning Goals
Looking Ahead
Education has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. From playing school as a child to completing my bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Michigan State, learning and teaching have been in my forefront for as long as I can remember. As a new teacher, I knew that I immediately wanted to take the next step to complete my master’s degree, as I felt there were more for me to learn and more ways for me to grow as an educator that I did not want to leave behind. Now, as I near the end of my graduate program, I can see that this is still not the end for my growth and learning process. As teachers, we are constantly changing and developing, even after the formal education has ceased. Whether it is due to new ideas within the educational field or just an area that is not as familiar to us, effective teachers are continuously searching for new ways to benefit the students within the classroom. I recently took a step back to look at the areas that I feel I would like to strengthen and set goals for myself within the areas of technology use in the classroom, classroom management through flexible seating, and teaching techniques for students with special needs within my classroom.
I currently teach in a district that is lucky enough to have one-to-one technology for all kindergarten and first grade students through the use of iPads. Each student is given an iPad to use for the entire school year to use within the classroom and sometimes at home. We have also been generously given Apple TVs for the classroom, an ELMO document camera and a projector. While we have ample opportunities for the use of technology, I feel that I am lacking in my knowledge of how to best use these tools I have been given to benefit my students with maximum outcome. I use technology each and every day within my class, but I am certain that there are better, more effective ways for me to do so to help enhance student learning, creativity and critical thinking. Recently, a coworker mentioned the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) training opportunity to me and I think that attending this development would be a great start for my push to improve and strengthen technology use within my classroom.
Student engagement has always been a top priority to me within my classroom, as I have nearly thirty kindergarten students within my care each day. At five and six years old, the energy level is constantly high, with movement far from lacking. For this reason, I feel that it is always important for me to keep student engagement high to support the students’ learning and to reach the students in the best possible ways. Several of my coworkers have started to transition their room to include flexible seating, in which they have several selections of seating options for their students to chose from. With this variety of seating, the students are provided choice within their day and accept a responsibility for their learning. This idea has been sitting in the back of my mind for some time, as I feel that I need more information about best practices and effective uses before I create an entirely flexible classroom. To become more comfortable and confident with this idea, I plan to read through several blogs and websites to find what has worked well for other teachers, such as this and this.
During my time in the undergraduate program at Michigan State University, my studies focused primarily on mathematics and language arts instruction within the classroom. While we learned multiple ways to address different learning needs, I never had any classes that focused specifically on teaching students with special needs. Over the past few years of teaching, I have had several students with disabilities and feel as though I need more support and knowledge to assist them and teach them in the best way possible. While in my master’s program at Michigan State University, I have taken a few classes in this category simply for my own knowledge and have found them to be extremely beneficial. I am now considering earning a second master’s degree at some point in the future within special education, such as through the Master of Arts in Special Education program at MSU. As that may be some time away, I plan to continue my own learning through exploring research-based websites and information centers, such as the National Center for Learning Disabilities or the National Association of Special Education Teachers. I want to continue to learn strategies and techniques that will benefit all of my students in my classroom, no matter what they need to be successful.
While the three of these goals appear to be spread out over the spectrum of teaching, they all relate to my overall goal: effectively teach my students in a way that is beneficial to each and every one. This overall goal is one that I know I will continue to focus on throughout my entire teaching career, as student needs are continuously changing and best-practices in teaching are constantly shifting. I hope that the three goals I have set for the near future will help me to move towards the educator that I dream to be.
MACUL: http://maculconference.org
Flexible Seating:http://luckylittlelearners.com/2016/01/flexible-seating.html