A Journey of Goals
A change in perspective and experience...
When applying to graduate school (on a whim, I might add), I had a few things in mind as my motivation for the next step in my career: a raise in salary and a love for learning. While I always loved going to school and learning about different tasks, the money component was a large driving factor in my choice to begin after completing my first full year of teaching. I was halfway through the year with my second class and wanted to choose courses that met my requirements and were enjoyable for me.
Beginning the program I chose courses that appealed to me as a learner. Completing my undergraduate program rather soon before taking the dive into a graduate program, the excitement of choosing classes that I would enjoy taking, rather than only courses I was required to take was music to my ears. This thought became the driving force behind my choice of a focus in Literacy Education for my Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program. I have always loved learning about all aspects of literacy, but found soon after beginning my teaching career that it was one of the areas I needed assistance in.
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Throughout my first year in the program, I was able to implement research-based practices and complete projects on content I was learning with my own students. During those courses, usually focused in areas of reading assessment and instruction, I found that I was more skilled than I thought and my main area of need was in areas of behavior management and student motivation. The flexibility of my program allowed me to change my original projection of courses to meet my professional areas of need. From there, my goal became to make myself a better educator, rather than deepen my knowledge solely as a student. I began taking courses that interested me greatly, while also supporting my areas of need as an educator.
...leads to a beautifully
understood sense of self-growth.
This change paved the way for me to immerse myself in my education through the education of my own students… and I became very successful in areas I was not at the beginning of my teaching career. Because the content I was learning was based on my own needs and interests, I was fully invested in all of my courses which, unfortunately, is not something that I have ever experienced before. I began (and still continue to) share ideas, theories, and practices I have learned in my courses with my colleagues, which developed another goal of helping myself and others in our world of education. I formed a goal of using my experiences through my courses to have interesting conversations through connections of my learning to ideas my colleagues were learning through various professional development courses.
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While I still maintain the goal of expanding my knowledge as an independent learner, I have gone through a journey of professional growth and revised my goals to include using my courses to become a better educator and extending this knowledge to my colleagues.
Flannery, M. E. (2023, September 15). Historic pay increases lead to happier teachers, fewer vacancies. NEA. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/historic-pay-increases-lead-happier-teachers-fewer-vacancies Brower, T. (2022, November 9). Learning is a sure path to happiness: Science proves it. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2021/10/17/learning-is-a-sure-path-to-happiness-science-proves-it/?sh=561cf635768e