In general, I would say I am a person who likes to keep busy. Before I started my master’s program, I was a coach for a nationally competing winter guard, a choreographer for my school’s musicals, and a new teacher. Once I picked up my master’s program, I continued to be the choreographer, I worked on attaining my tenure, bought my first home and I was completing all of my coursework while teaching. Needless to say, I like to keep myself busy to keep life interesting.
Well, I have a confession to make. In all honesty, I have been worrying about my master’s program ending. I have been worrying about the question: “What will I do next?”. I will have my master’s degree and don’t plan on starting a doctorate program. I have my tenure. My home will be nearly finished in terms of redecorating and I no longer have a winter guard team to work with. So, what will this active lifestyle lover do?
I was worried about this question the majority of the summer before my last semester as a master’s student and the answer to this question did not come right away. It wasn’t until I talked to a close mentor of mine that I found the answer to my question. We had a long discussion about all the new ideas I was learning in my master’s program as well as another discussion about my fear of my master’s ending and what I will do with my time. In the middle of me explaining my fear, she stopped me and said “ Stephanie, your master’s doesn’t have to stop here. You have so much to offer to the world of education and so much to learn, but it doesn’t have to be in the college classroom.“ Thanks to her comment, I was inspired to come up with a game plan to continue my education to fill this empty time I was so fearful of.
The first thing I plan on doing is joining the National Science Teachers Association. In this community of scientists, science teachers and educational researchers, new ideas are constantly being shared with one another to improve upon the teaching of science. In this community, I would like to share the valuable knowledge I have learned at Michigan State University with others such as action research and formative assessment analysis. I also can continue to work with others that have new research to share with me.
The second thing I plan on doing is engaging in various kinds of technology that will allow me to continue to improve in my practice. In my teaching subject matter with technology course, I learned that there are many pieces of technology that will assist me in continuing to be a better teacher. I plan on attending webinars that are related to teaching science content better. I plan on watching more TED talks to see how others view education. I plan on continuing to use Pinterest to see how other teachers create classroom environments. Finally, I hope to subscribe to educational blogs and find a blog that really allows me to look at my teaching practices with new eyes.
Lastly, I hope to continue on improving and working on the things I learned in my master’s program within my classroom and with the staff at my school. I feel that even though we covered a lot in my master’s program, sometimes, due to time constraints, we don’t get to read the whole book or complete the whole project. For example, I have created an action research proposal, but it was only a proposal. In this case, I would actually like to complete the action research and complete it within my class. I would also like to finish reading my formative assessment from my teaching from science understanding class as well as the books on teacher teams and professional learning communities from my leading teacher learning class.
As you can see, I still have a lot of things I can do to keep me busy. I no longer have a good reason to be afraid of the empty time and the fact that I won’t know what to do. I will have lots to complete and to finish well after my master’s program ends. Even if I complete all of these tasks, I believe that education is ever changing and I will have to continue working on these tasks for a long time in order to remain molding my practice into the best it can be.
Well, I have a confession to make. In all honesty, I have been worrying about my master’s program ending. I have been worrying about the question: “What will I do next?”. I will have my master’s degree and don’t plan on starting a doctorate program. I have my tenure. My home will be nearly finished in terms of redecorating and I no longer have a winter guard team to work with. So, what will this active lifestyle lover do?
I was worried about this question the majority of the summer before my last semester as a master’s student and the answer to this question did not come right away. It wasn’t until I talked to a close mentor of mine that I found the answer to my question. We had a long discussion about all the new ideas I was learning in my master’s program as well as another discussion about my fear of my master’s ending and what I will do with my time. In the middle of me explaining my fear, she stopped me and said “ Stephanie, your master’s doesn’t have to stop here. You have so much to offer to the world of education and so much to learn, but it doesn’t have to be in the college classroom.“ Thanks to her comment, I was inspired to come up with a game plan to continue my education to fill this empty time I was so fearful of.
The first thing I plan on doing is joining the National Science Teachers Association. In this community of scientists, science teachers and educational researchers, new ideas are constantly being shared with one another to improve upon the teaching of science. In this community, I would like to share the valuable knowledge I have learned at Michigan State University with others such as action research and formative assessment analysis. I also can continue to work with others that have new research to share with me.
The second thing I plan on doing is engaging in various kinds of technology that will allow me to continue to improve in my practice. In my teaching subject matter with technology course, I learned that there are many pieces of technology that will assist me in continuing to be a better teacher. I plan on attending webinars that are related to teaching science content better. I plan on watching more TED talks to see how others view education. I plan on continuing to use Pinterest to see how other teachers create classroom environments. Finally, I hope to subscribe to educational blogs and find a blog that really allows me to look at my teaching practices with new eyes.
Lastly, I hope to continue on improving and working on the things I learned in my master’s program within my classroom and with the staff at my school. I feel that even though we covered a lot in my master’s program, sometimes, due to time constraints, we don’t get to read the whole book or complete the whole project. For example, I have created an action research proposal, but it was only a proposal. In this case, I would actually like to complete the action research and complete it within my class. I would also like to finish reading my formative assessment from my teaching from science understanding class as well as the books on teacher teams and professional learning communities from my leading teacher learning class.
As you can see, I still have a lot of things I can do to keep me busy. I no longer have a good reason to be afraid of the empty time and the fact that I won’t know what to do. I will have lots to complete and to finish well after my master’s program ends. Even if I complete all of these tasks, I believe that education is ever changing and I will have to continue working on these tasks for a long time in order to remain molding my practice into the best it can be.