Educating

Master's Showcase

Learning and Teaching are so intertwined. Over my time learning in the Master of Arts in Education program at Michigan State University, I have had multiple opportunities to use my new learning to improve my teaching. Likewise, I have been able to use analysis and reflection upon my teaching to aid my learning. This page showcases examples of what I have learned, how that has impacted my teaching, and what my learning and teaching may look like going forward.

I've divided the work into three categories: educating, creating, and reflecting and visioning.

Educating showcases my research and learning.

Creating displays units and lessons I have designed.

Reflecting and Visioning exhibits my reflections and my vision-casting for future learning and teaching.

To read more about a category, hover over the boxes without words.

To view an item, simply click anywhere within the box.

This paper is based on an interview with an inspiring teacher. The teacher, who teaches high school Spanish, explains how she seeks to use anti-racist, anti-colonial, and social justice pedagogies to shape her classroom culture and curriculum. My paper reflects how I recognize and incorporate aspects of great teaching as modeled by teaching colleagues.

Educators know that we are not just teaching academic knowledge and skills. We are also teaching social skills. This paper models how I use knowledge of best practices and research to make a compelling case for incorporating social skills, thereby informing my own practice as well as that of my colleagues.

In this paper, I explore how an elementary classroom can equip students to successfully plan and do investigations. It demonstrates how I am able to draw from multiple resources to become informed on a previously unfamiliar topic.

Teaching Social Skills

Teaching for and with Social Justice

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations in the Classroom

As an educator, I constantly aim to improve. As I continue to educate myself (to learn) my plans for how I will go on to educate our students (to teach) change and develop. The work displayed here demonstrates areas I have worked to educate myself and how I plan to incorporate that learning into how I educate.

English Language Learners (ELLs) at the beginning stages of learning English often have literacy learning reduced to reading basics without meaningful content learning. This series of lessons shows how I use assessment and relational knowledge of students to design meaningful and age-appropriate lessons which incorporate multiple aspects of literacy.

This social studies unit, designed for 4th graders studying immigration, seeks to keep anti-racist, anti-colonial, raciolinguistic, and social justice ideologies at the forefront. It showcases how I keep these pedagogies central to the way I plan and teach lessons.

There is so much to learn for students who are new to the U.S. The lessons included here demonstrate how I use best practices and scaffolds to give these students access to both content and language. They also evidence the careful thought and reasoning put into crafting excellent lesson plans.

Engaging English Language Learners in Literacy

Social - Justice Oriented Social Studies

Wholistic Literacy Learning

As I learn, I am equipped by new ideas and resources to create better educational materials, lessons, and strategies for my students. This work exhibits some of the lessons and units I have created as a result of my learning.

This piece of writing describes the writing curriculum used by my district and evaluates its elements based on consideration of best practices and elements of writing. I go on to suggest revisions and the how I may supplement this curriculum in the future. This exemplifies how I critically evaluate curricula and make adjustments to meet the needs of my students.

Improving as a teacher requires me to look at my previous and current practices and understanding and to look forward to envision improvements.

The work in this portion of the showcase exemplifies both the reflective and forward-looking nature and work of teaching.

These reflections, a response to What a Writer Needs by Ralph Fletcher, express how examining the best practices of professional writers can inform both my teaching of writing and my own practices as a writer. This shows how I can take new information, evaluate it, and apply it to myself as an individual and a teacher.

Goals are a big part of growth, and allow me to measure my progress from the past to the present as well as chart my steps into the future. This short reflective piece shows how I am a goal-oriented teacher and set clear and specific goals to guide my over-arching goal of continued betterment.

Writing Curriculum Analysis

Implementing Best Practices for Writing

Looking Back and Looking Forward