Looking Forward...

Education comes with responsibility, a responsibility to share your knowledge with others. As a lifelong learner, graduating from the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program is by no means the conclusion to my studies. I plan on being on the "front-lines" of advocating for today's best teaching practices. My time spent studying in the MAED program was more focused on specific teaching practices such as using assessments and rubrics, and dealing with difficult behaviors. However, now, I would like to create opportunities for leadership in these areas, and expand my knowledge of broader issues and practices within education. Therefore, I have created three goals to ensure that I will be able to share my expertise and continue to learn about these broader issues. My goals are based on leadership and lifelong learning within my own school, and around the world. Specifically, I will be focusing on teaching literacy online, global education, and expanding my own professional network.I have outlined each goal below, but for a complete explanation of each goal, please see the attached PDF.

Goal 1: Teaching Online Literacy Instruction

For my first goal and plan of action, I will take my experience in literacy instruction, and add more of a technological component to it. Online teaching has become a very relevant teaching practice over the last few months as we’re experiencing a pandemic. My focus throughout my Master of Arts in Education program was literacy instruction, but now I would like to continue learning about today's best practices for teaching reading and writing online. This will put a twist on the practices I've learned about throughout my program. It will also be a very necessary conversation to have within my own district and school in case we do go back to online teaching. In addition, I look forward to implementing some of these strategies into my regular in-person classroom to promote this 21st century skill. Throughout my planning of this goal, I came across a website called Teach Thought. It has some great literacy ideas on it that I will use to get started with planning online literacy instruction. I am particularly interested in the vocabulary and word wall resources that this article shares. I can see these games and activities being useful whether we have class in person or remotely. Becoming proficient with some of these resources will help me remain flexible and effective no matter where our teaching takes place.

Click here for resources for teaching literacy online.

Goal 2: Global Education

Highly effective teachers make learning applicable for students. They give students opportunities to discuss 21st century issues in age appropriate ways. One goal that I have as a teacher is to maintain a safe space for students to come to where they feel comfortable discussing current events. Therefore, my second goal is to keep up with world wide issues so that we can

discuss appropriate events in my class. I love to use diverse

literature to introduce these topics. I have to thank Dr. Laura Apol

for encouraging this practice. I feel it gives kids a great visual and

starting point to build empathy and understanding in areas where

they might never otherwise be exposed. Due to the current events

happening in our world today, it is even more important that I stay

up to date with the latest information about how to introduce global education topics in my classroom. I have found a great website, Edupotia, which has a variety of resources on it to help get me started. I am hoping that this will not only serve its purpose in my classroom, but that it will also be a way for me to gather accurate information to share and discuss with my professional network.

Click here for resources on Edutopia.

Goal 3: Expand Professional Network

Finally, I would also like to participate in similar discussions with a larger community. Therefore, for my final goal, I need to expand my professional network. Building a professional network is one of the best ways to stay up to date in the latest and best teaching practices. So far, I have my small community within my school. We are fortunate to participate in monthly professional learning communities and book studies. However, I would like to expand my professional network into the state of Michigan, the United States of America, and even into the rest of the world. There is a lot of value in learning about what other schools and districts are doing.Therefore, I am going to build a portfolio on Google Drive of professional blogs, websites, talks, and national conferences so that I can be proactive about lifelong learning. These resources will also help connect me with other educators that I can learn from. I chose to use Google Drive because of its ease of use and access, as well as it’s sharing capabilities.

Click here to see how Google Drive works.

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