what my journey through this graduate study has caused me to question about my self both as a learner and teacher, and my aspirations to be a leader in my field. If we know that technology has brought us to the point that anything can be fabricated, tinkered with and created with ease then what world are we headed for and preparing our students to live in. I would argue we are not currently teaching them to live, work, and play in a world in which they will live and see.

 

     One of the first classes I took in the MAET program was CEP 812: Applying Educational Technology to Practice. The course culminated in having us look at and work to solve a wicked problem of practice we saw in our work as an educator. At the time, a couple years ago, my scope of what a wicked problem could be was simply wanting a better way of engaging students in their learning...and thus my focus was PBL(project based learning). And while I still value that approach my notion of what a wicked problem is in my field has grown to be so much more than that. I now see my wicked problem to attack is systematic change in how we prepare students with the help of technology to be successful in a world that is changing around them and one that school is not preparing them for. And while I have begun to tackle that problem at the level I can in my classroom and building, it has inspired me to go further.

 

     The desire to be a leader outside of my classroom and to make significant changes in how and what I teach came with the more recent completion of both CEP 815: Technology and Leadership and CEP 800: Learning in School and Other Settings. In CEP 800 I delved into looking at my own practice and lessons I was doing and evaluating them in relation to learning theories. This led me to examine ways in which I could also apply other theories to my practice and for the integration of restorative practices, place based learning, heavier emphasis on critical thinking above all else based on the 4 resources model, and the ever changing of learning by doing (including a shift from just traditional PBL to more open inquiry based projects) in my classroom. In conjunction with that CEP 815 asked that I examine the balance of the relationship of technology, teaching, and learning (the sweet spot of the TPACK model if you will) but through the lense of me as the individual and how I could begin to be a leader in making that accessible to people around me. It was here that I solidified my desire to create and implement a course for my students that would begin to address the need I was seeing in education...a way of providing an environment that would indeed begin to impart the skills and mindset of where I see education lacking.

 

     I see the concept of maker spaces as a way of doing just that. I have begun to develop a course to be offered as an elective that would act as a maker space. Incorporating what I believe are the 12 Skills of the Modern Learner not being taught to students comprehensively. I do not believe I would have arrived at this point without the MAET program. When I began the task of this graduate study I did so thinking that I simply wanted to learn how to integrate technology in a useful way into my classroom than I already was. I had an interest in technology and was a go to person in my building for simple technology questions as it was. I didn’t see the program transforming the direction I wanted to take my teaching. As an ELA teacher I did not think I would end up wanting to, needing to teach, a course in technology.

 

     But it goes beyond that for me now. Embarking on a journey once again as a learner has opened my eyes up to the experiences of my students I had become distanced from. As someone who while in school through my K-12, undergraduate, and first master’s programs even though successful, struggled to find ways to keep engaged as well as had issues with attention and procrastination. I see these same struggles with my students daily, and not just because I work in an environment designed to address the needs of students in which traditional school has failed them. I see them as a microcosm for many students in education. It is through this program I found my delight in online learning...a self paced, more individualized environment.Each course asked that I be critical and reflective on myself as both a learner and teacher, and I think i have asked this of my students over the course of participating in the program and an increased rate. I have always cared less about quantity in teaching and went for the qualitative, but I feel over the last two years I have grown to want my teaching to be more qualitative as well in terms of the experiences of learning my students have.

 

     With this, and the program, I have developed several online classes my students can work on individually in addition to the inquiry based projects they are required to do for the program in which I teach. I have adapted the common core standards to fit within these projects, and moved to a standards based grading of the work being done by students so that their grades are an ongoing, defendable discussion between us. I have also sought to be a leader in technology in the district through membership on the district Google Squad and application for the position of Content Leader in Technology for grades 9-12. I did not anticipate nor foresee moving in these directions when I first began the program a year and half ago.

 

     The passion that was ignited in me to be not just a teacher who uses technology but someone who is a leader with it is something I know has come from my participation in the program. My mindset towards education was already changing, but this program helped speed that along in a direction I am excited to continue in. As I have begun to reflect back on my experiences in CEP 807: Proseminar In Educational Technology, a capstone of my experience at MSU, I feel rewarded in what I have become and accomplished. I know I have set out on a path that will only continue to evolve my mind and being as a learner, educator and leader with the ever evolving knowledge of technology as a tool.   My initial goal in the program was to hopefully expand opportunities for my students, although I did not know then to what degree that would take as it has now, but I do know that as I venture down the path before me I am prepared to tackle whatever comes my way.