Katherine Hicks
Internationally Minded.
Spartan Educator.
Life- Long Learner.
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Fruitful Feat
Introduction
There are some people that know what the future holds for them from the time they are in Kindergarten. I was one of those people. I come from four generations of teachers. All of whom were so extremely different, and yet they had one very important thing in common; the belief that all children deserve an education. I grew up with this foundational understanding and embraced it wholeheartedly. Even after the school day was done, I would go to my mother’s classroom and spend hours excitedly assisting in setting up her classroom for the following week. I would return home and “strongly suggest” to my siblings that “school” would be the best game to play that evening. Simply put, being an educator has always been the only possible future for me.
After two years as a general educator teacher, I am still just as excited about teaching as I was when I was five. I come to school excited to share my knowledge and life experiences with my students and challenge myself to walk away from everyday having learned something from them. I frequently advocate to my students that “learning doesn’t stop when we leave the classroom,” rather it continues throughout our lives. We are "lifelong learners." This motto is something I have repeated so many times, many students now say this when they make a mistake.
It would stand to reason that this credo would transfer to every aspect of my life, including my continued education for my Master of Arts and Educational Technology. However, I received a letter in the mail that informed me of my looming graduate credit expiration date and I found myself panicked. I wanted to pursue a Masters degree, but the thought of truly taking a step back into the mind of a student was slightly terrifying. In fact, I found myself reaching for excuses for not enrolling. However, things changed the following day when I walked into class and a student came to me and said, “Ms. Hicks, I’m glad you make mistakes and learn everyday too. It makes me feel brave; like I can learn anything.” Hearing this made me reflect on my doubt and analyze the example I set for my students. I wanted to better myself and finding a Masters program was the next step in my self-betterment.
When I was given a position at Falls Church City Schools, the first thing I noticed was how much technology each school had access to. Every teacher had a Macbook, Smartboard, adaptive math and reading software. Every student had a Macbook or Ipad and guaranteed home internet access! These types of resources were a far cry from the technology I had access to growing up in the small, rural town of Coldwater. I approached another educator in hopes of getting an idea of how they meaningfully integrated all these resources. The answer I received was little more than one software suggestion and a shrug of the shoulders. I realized that there was so much technology in Falls Church, that many of the teachers didn’t know where to start! It was at this point, that I went to explore Michigan State’s graduate educational technology programs to help fill in the gaps.
In my search, I stumbled upon the Master of Arts and Educational Technology (MAET) program. I must admit that the fear I first felt when thinking about a Masters program slowly crept back up as I thought about my lack of extensive technical skill. I compared my skills to my friends who coded and designed websites on a regular basis. I didn't think I could accomplish the same and I was nervous to put myself in a situation where small failures seemed inevitable. But I quickly realized that this the beauty of learning. I made a commitment to invest in myself and find a way to overcome the challenges that lay ahead of me. Looking back, I am so happy that I made this promise to myself. By “dreaming bigger,” I pushed out of my comfort zone and allowed myself to become a better educator and stronger women.
Challenge #1 I'm not an expert with Technology
By far and away, my biggest challenge entering the program was my thought that I wasn’t a technological guru. I had a misguided belief that the only people that could be successful in a program such as MAET were people who knew a lot about technology. This idea in hindsight seems pretty comical. The whole course emphasized the importance of educating teachers about how to use technology in meaningful ways. If only “gurus” signed up for the course, it would be a pretty short program. Once I came to this understanding, I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I finally accepted that it's okay to struggle at tasks, and I shifted my frame of mind from “failure” to “opportunity.”
This shift did not happen overnight. My first course in the MAET program was CEP 810-Teaching with Technology for Understanding. I found myself repeatedly thanking the Michigan State program directors for placing this course first. CEP 810 had the most innovative, exciting and diverse tasks of any other course I had taken at MSU. They were creatively challenging and forced you to experiment with alternate forms of technology.
When I think about which project had the greatest impact on my MAET journey, the one that sticks out in my mind is the Networked Learning Project (NLP) project. This assignment required you to learn a skill using only digital tools to supplement your learning. I chose to learn hand lettering. As I went through this journey, I documented and reflected on my experience through blog posts, videos and peer collaboration. With each post, I became more aware of who I was a learner as well as strengthened my digital footprint. I found myself excited about watching new tutorials and comparing sources. I couldn’t wait to get back to my project. This intrinsic motivation for success, was exactly what I needed to feel confident in my ability as a student and my general technological skills.
Challenge #2 What it means to be curious
When I look back on my education as a child, I think about how questioning was used in instruction. In my mind, questions were asked to a teacher and had a definite answer. Once the answer was received, we moved on to another subject. If you asked too many questions you were perceived as unintelligent. Similarly, when taking classes at MSU, I found myself reluctant to ask questions for fear of delaying the conclusion of class. This linear way of thinking was extremely hard to shake.
In my CEP 812-Applying Educational Technology to Issues of Practice class, we discussed how questioning had previously been used in our education. We also discussed how questioning can drive instruction and lead to very meaningful results. In this course, I was able to expand my understanding of inquiry based learning through the examination of Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question, class discussion, and getting an opportunity to question my way through several projects.
One such project was my Wicked Problem project. During this assignment, I used only questions to identify an unsolvable problem within classrooms today. My peers and I created brain maps on Popplet to illustrate our train of thought and we made a Prezi to show our research and collaboration. By completing this assignment, I found the beauty in questioning and became determined to implement this into my own classroom.
One important element of teaching in an International Baccalaureate (IB) school is encouraging inquiry based learning. Until I took CEP 812, I didn’t truly know what this looked like. I remember coming back to Falls Church, upon completing this course and feeling significantly more prepared for the school year. To assist with my goal of infusing inquiry based learning into my lessons, I met with our IB coordinator and team leader to create specific curriculum to support this learning. I successfully implemented the new written curriculum and included monthly check-ins to alter my teaching for the following year. In addition, I created a “Wonder Wall” (inspired by the book Wonder), where students place their questions and reflect on these questions to create “passion projects.” I feel so grateful for this class, as it opened my eyes to the wonderful creativity that can emerge from “beautiful questions.”
Challenge #3 Technology as a Distraction
Coming from a district with such an abundance of technology, one of my main concerns was that technology would become a distraction to student learning. I knew that by entering the MAET program, my personal technological understanding would increase, but I was really concerned that it would take over my instruction. Upon entering this program, my goal was to enhance my teaching and I was afraid that by learning more about technology, I would do the opposite and distract students from the content. However CEP 800-Psychology of Learning in School and Other Settings, helped alleviate this concern. This course allowed me to understand what “learning” looks like within the context of different learning theories. It also allowed me to see the wide range of uses for technology and enhance my understanding of what it means to use technology in a meaningful way.
At the start of this course, I was asked to identify which learning theory supported my beliefs and practices. I found that difficult to put my teaching into such a small “box.” When I thought about it, I found I used elements of every learning theory at some point in my day. As the course continued, I thought about my personal learning and student’s learning. My goal was to push my understanding of these unique learning theories and really solidify my teaching philosophy; especially when it came to technology use. I interacted with blogs, class discussion forums and Flipgrids. This experience as a MSU student allowed to see the tremendous affordances that technology allowed. I wasn’t distracted by the mode of communication rather, enamored with the opportunities it presented.
I thought about ways I could apply my experience in CEP 800 to my classroom and I became “stuck” on the idea of online discussion opportunities. In my class, I have many second language (ESL) students. Many times, these children will refrain from contributing to class discussion for fear of making a mistake. I thought back to my use of Flipgrid and realized that this might alleviate some of the stressors of talking in front of the whole group. I began implementing this software in my classroom and the result was phenomenal. Students who never shared their opinion, felt comfortable creating videos that they could reshoot if necessary. They then opened up and started talking in class! I couldn’t help but think that if I had never learned this technology, the progress that those students made would have taken much longer to achieve! After taking this course, I realized that you can have all the technology in the world, but if you’re not implementing it with purpose, than it can be rendered useless.
Conclusion
My time in MAET has been so incredibly powerful. I walked into this graduate program, nervous and insecure and I walked away feeling armed with powerful technology tools. Since the beginning of my graduate career, I have created lessons and collaborated with peers in a way that I didn’t know I could. My experiences have allowed me to have a flexible mindset and engage students in a way that accesses their interest and sparks curiosity. Now that I have found this new interest, I fully intend on pursuing my career in technology education as well as acting as a mentor to my fellow educators in Falls Church. I plan to continue my technology learning by becoming certified both as a Google teacher as well as an Apple Educator. I’m thankful to MAET for enhancing my teaching and I can’t wait to see what the future of technology and education looks like.
