Reflect and Inquiry Teaching Practice IInstructor: Donald Barringer
This was my first graduate level course that I experienced and I took this course alongside my year long teaching internship. The course focused on literacy instruction and first challenged my idea of literacy by adding discussion in to reading and writing. After several years of learning how to write a lesson plan, this course finally allowed me to test reading and writing units out in the classroom and still receive feedback from a professor. I learned how mini-lessons leave more room for conferencing in literacy instruction, which has been vital in my career. I also learned how to organize and teach in small reading groups and how to use student work to analyze the effectiveness of any lesson. |
Professional Roles and Teaching Practice IIInstructor: Andrew Miness
This course focused on my favorite subject, social studies. Also aligned with my internship year, the main project was to create a two week long social studies unit. Professor Miness guided us to dive into NGSS standards and get to know the content as well as the pedagogy of teaching social studies. This class allowed me to fully plan a unit that built on each other which was helpful to experience because my style of teaching is the complete opposite. While I am still more flexible than this course encouraged, I see the benefits in an in-depth, long term unit plan. |
REFLECT AND INQUIRY TEACHING PRACTICE IIInstructor: Martha Beitner-Miller
This class really pushed me because it was about good science instruction (something I don't even teach anymore). What I loved about this class was the focus on providing a rationale for each lesson. You couldn't teach something just because you wanted to, you needed NCSS standards to back up your idea, and you needed to explain how what you were teaching was linked to the standards. I also learned a good deal about differentiation. Professor Beitner-Miller had us explain the differentiation we would use in each step of the lesson plan before we would get the green light to teach. |
Policies, PRactices, and perspectives in special educationInstructor: Dr. Emily Bouck
This class was the turning point in my education towards special education. It covered all the basics about special education law like IDEA and Section 504. It also talked about basics of common disabilities and how to teach and adapt to all of these. Every week I was absorbing so much needed information and this course was the start of this website. I researched all the disabilities I have listed in my special education guides and put together resources for people like me, general educators looking to better help their special education students. |
Classroom and Behavior Management in the Inclusive ClassroomInstructors: Dr. Troy Mariage and Rachel Ogle
Dr. Mariage was so excited about this course that it was hard not to like it yourself. We talked about different ways to address challenging behavior. The big take-away that I had from this class was to never take behavior personally, have a clear set of rules, and talk to students after they've had a chance to cool down. Dr. Mariage also gave me the chance to research trauma and toxic stress further during a special project, which was incredibly valuable to my career. |
Advanced Diagnostic Remediation of Students with Learning DisabilitiesInstructor: Dr. Carol Sue Englert
If I could take this course a hundred times, I would. Dr. Englert taught so much about not only assessing students on where they needed help but HOW to help each type of problem. We talked about different strategies to teach reading and writing, and completed many projects working with a struggling student. I used the OREO method of writing for the first time and Stop-Think-Paraphrase for reading. Dr. Englert's hands on approach to teaching helped me to absorb so much knowledge on ELA intervention and teaching. |
Assessment of students with mild disabilitiesInstructor: Dr. Eunsoo Cho
This class covered the different kinds of assessment that you can give to students, especially students in special education. I learned about how to assess an intervention's effectiveness over time and the basics of assessments like accuracy and reliability of different assessments. I also learned how to give a complete Woodcock-Johnson IV assessment to a student with an IEP to determine what his present level of academic achievement and functional performance (PLAAFP) was to write goals for the student's year. |
collaboration and Consultation in Special educationInstructor: Dr. Eunsoo Cho
This class taught me about the importance of communicating with parents. I already worked very well with my co-workers but I realized I needed to do more to include parents in their child's education. I looked more into why special educators and general educators can have miscommunications and how to address that. I also learned how to politely interview a parent of a student in special education to give more context to their year and better help them. |
Concepts Educational InquiryInstructors: Dr. Steven Weiland and Nathan Clason
This course is packed with information on the basic foundation of education. The first unit talks about the difference between two philosophers and challenges the purpose of school. Through readings and video, you are forced to think what is the teacher's role in education and what should education be. The unit I just completed talked about participant observation in other cultures and how can this relate to education. I look forward to the rest of the course. |
Capstone Portfolio CourseInstructors: Dr. Matthew Koehler and Aric Gaunt
In this course, I reflect on my experiences at Michigan State University to build this website. So far, it has had me look at how I have used all the information from MSU in the classroom and what kind of teacher has it made me. It also made me consider what kind of teacher do I WANT to be going forward. |