Mr. Topel Portfolio
How a Master's Program Helped Me to Help Others
(Synthesis Essay)
Growing up, I never wanted to be a teacher. Both of my parents were teachers (my mom taught preschool and kindergarten students at our small church-affiliated elementary school, while my dad taught chemistry and physics to the students at my high school) and the long hours that they spent planning lessons, grading papers, and dealing with frustrated parents had me thoroughly convinced that teaching was far too much work for the amount of money that they brought home each year. As the years went on, however, I began to soften to the idea of teaching for a living. As a teenager, I found that I enjoyed helping people overcome challenges in and outside of school. I would tutor friends who were struggling with math or science classes, and volunteer to help train new employees at the Dairy Queen where I worked throughout the summers. In each case I took pride in the new knowledge or skill that I had helped to cultivate. Eventually, I decided to become a professional educator. I enrolled in Concordia University, where I spent four years training to become a math and science teacher, and after graduation, I began teaching math and science to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in suburban Michigan.
I began teaching because I wanted to help people and while my time in the classroom has helped many students to understand and appreciate the wonders of science and math I was bothered by the idea that some were not helped by my teaching. Every year there were some students who just wouldn’t get excited about our science activities, and would do only the minimum amount of effort needed for math class. I believed that without a more competent teacher these students would “fall through the cracks” of our school system, and not learn the valuable skills and strategies that they need to succeed in life after graduation. These students weighed heavily on my mind when I chose to pursue a Master of Arts in Education (MAED) through Michigan State University. Now that that I have nearly completed this MAED program, I am happy to say that the lessons I have learned have helped me to become a more effective teacher who can help more students to learn.
I began teaching because I wanted to help people and while my time in the classroom has helped many students to understand and appreciate the wonders of science and math I was bothered by the idea that some were not helped by my teaching. Every year there were some students who just wouldn’t get excited about our science activities, and would do only the minimum amount of effort needed for math class. I believed that without a more competent teacher these students would “fall through the cracks” of our school system, and not learn the valuable skills and strategies that they need to succeed in life after graduation. These students weighed heavily on my mind when I chose to pursue a Master of Arts in Education (MAED) through Michigan State University. Now that that I have nearly completed this MAED program, I am happy to say that the lessons I have learned have helped me to become a more effective teacher who can help more students to learn.
One of the first classes that helped me learn how to reach more students was CEP 802: Developing Positive Attitudes Towards Learning. Before taking this class I, like many teachers, thought that student motivation was something that was beyond my control. For me, this idea had serious negative implications. By thinking that students alone were responsible for their motivation it meant that those students who had no desire to learn simply wouldn’t learn, and were entirely unteachable. Fortunately, Dr. Oka, my professor for this course, showed me that this was not true. I learned that I could still make a difference, and that a student’s desire to learn could be improved by with specific teaching practices, such as identifying the student’s approach to motivation. Our class examined several fictional examples from our Wentzel & Brophy (2014) textbook and used them to help identify the motivational challenges that our real world students faced. I learned that a student’s reasons for engaging, or not engaging, in a particular task can vary significantly. Some students are motivated mainly by external rewards, while others crave public approval, or are simply afraid to fail. I also learned of the difference between a performance orientation, where students seek to earn good grades, and a mastery orientation, where students seek knowledge for its own sake. Finally, CEP 802 prepared me with strategies that I can use to encourage a mastery orientation among my students.
At the end of the course, I had a chance to put all of these lessons together and create a “Design Project” which thoroughly evaluated the motivational needs of one of my students, and came up with a specific plan to improve his desire to learn in classes. The strategies I employed in this design project produced a measurable improvement in the student’s in class behavior as well as his grades. More importantly, this success assured me that I can make a difference in student motivation. After taking CEP 802, I now look at a struggling student and see an opportunity to make a difference.
At the end of the course, I had a chance to put all of these lessons together and create a “Design Project” which thoroughly evaluated the motivational needs of one of my students, and came up with a specific plan to improve his desire to learn in classes. The strategies I employed in this design project produced a measurable improvement in the student’s in class behavior as well as his grades. More importantly, this success assured me that I can make a difference in student motivation. After taking CEP 802, I now look at a struggling student and see an opportunity to make a difference.
While these plans to improve student motivation are valuable, ideally my lessons and teaching approach would keep students motivated to learn from the very beginning. Fortunately, two other classes helped me to develop teaching strategies which can keep students engaged and motivated. The first of these classes was TE 855 “Teaching School Mathematics” with Professor Guzman. I expected this course to improve my ability to explain difficult concepts, or provide details on how to choose appropriate class assignments. However, much of my time in the class did not focus on how to teach math, but instead discussed why students should care about math in the first place. The greatest lesson I learned from TE 855 is that math has the power to change lives for the better. Business people can use math to increase efficiency and run a more successful company. Families can use math to create a budget that allows them to use their resources most effectively, and citizens can use math to argue for changes in their government’s policy. TE 855 showed me that math is a tool and that by focusing on what this tool can be used for I can help to engage and motivate all students.
|
|
Some of the greatest examples of a teacher motivating students through excellent lesson design were found in our textbook “Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice” (Wager & Stinson 2012). This book showed teachers like Rico Gutstein, who built used difficult subjects like the AIDS outbreak, questionable election results, and urban gentrification to challenge and engage struggling high school students in a high risk area. Gutstein would “mathematize” these subjects by introducing the main question (e.g. “Was this election a fair representation of what our citizens wanted?”), breaking this question into smaller math-specific components (e.g. “What is a statistical sample, and how do we know if it is accurate?”), and allowing students to argue for or against the main question with mathematical evidence (e.g.”I think the election did not agree with the will of the people because the sample showed a significant statistical bias”). Inspired by the work of Gutstein and other teachers highlighted throughout the course, I completed my TE 855 course project to help my students develop empathy for those around the world who are at an economic disadvantage (full lesson plans and a description of this project are available by clicking on the Scribd document at the top of this section). By “mathematizing” an unfamiliar struggle in this lesson I not only built empathy among my students, but also proved to myself that math has power to reach people far more effectively than traditional math motivators like grades, college acceptance, or careers opportunities. So far, my Michigan State University graduate courses had taught me strategies for motivating challenging students, and showed the universal power of mathematics, but the last of my three most impactful classes reminded me why I got into teaching in the first place.
Some of the first times I recall being excited about teaching came when I was helping friends work through challenging calculations in high school chemistry and physics classes. I loved that moment when things finally “clicked” and these people were able to explain what numbers went in each place and why they belonged there. Of course it was rewarding to hear them come back and tell me that they passed the test, but my greatest joys always came from the moment where they achieved understanding of the material. However, in the years since I began teaching, much of my excitement about understanding had been diminished by the burdens of a full curriculum and annual standardized assessments. I remember looking at the enormous list of topics I had to address in the our current content standards for the state, and wondering how I would have time to teach it all. I also recall the frustration I felt when we would take the annual standardized assessment (Michigan Educational Assessment Program or MEAP test) and later hear students say “We never even talked about that!”. So, each year I continued to teach more and more of the content students might see on the tests, and spend less and less time allowing students to struggle with challenging questions or acquire deep understanding of a topic. This trend may have continued if it weren’t for the work I completed with Professor Sharma in TE 861A: Teaching Science for Understanding.
As the course title suggests, TE 861A focuses on the understanding of scientific material and principles. Because of the vast amount of scientific knowledge students may be responsible for knowing, it would be impossible for students to learn all of this information through simple memorization or direct instruction. Instead, TE 861A focused on teaching scientific principles like developing a hypothesis, designing experiments, and researching past discoveries. The overall goal of this course was to encourage teaching that would promote deep understanding within our students. Many of the lessons we learned from Professor Sharma utilized materials from Ambitious Science Teaching (AST), a program which shares this goal. The four stages of AST are shown in the diagram on the left, and each one helps to promote a deep understanding of the material. I learned that engaging units start with puzzling phenomenon that require a scientific explanation. These phonomenon dare students to learn about multiple scientific principles, and to combine these pieces of knowledge into a narrative, evidence-based explanation of the event. These explanations require deep knowledge of the principles at work and a true understanding of how each component relates to the other. Of course, AST does not expect students to develop these robust explanations alone. TE 861A spent a great deal of time helping our class to learn different “discourse moves” or strategies which can help students go beyond a surface level knowledge, and press for deep understanding. For example, questions like “Why do you think this happens that way?” or “What would happen if…?” force students to consider the reason behind their observations, and help them to develop a true understanding of the phenomenon and all of the principles behind it. At the end of this course, I put all of these pieces together to create a unit plan for teaching the human nervous system in this AST format. My unit begins with the students playing a game of dodgeball, then discussing how their bodies are able to perform such a complex task. The students are divided into small groups, and asked to explain how their bodies are able to dodge a ball. Each group then continues to refine their theory as I explain different parts of the nervous system and their roles in the body. By the time each group has developed their final explanation the members have a much more thorough understanding of all of the body parts at work in the complex process of dodging a ball, and (not that this is the point) they even perform better on my assessments than the classes before them. Ultimately, TE 861A helped me to remember that science, and therefore science teaching, is about understanding. Understanding both the discoveries of the past, and the process of questioning, hypothesizing, and experimenting, that will lead to the discoveries of the future.
As the course title suggests, TE 861A focuses on the understanding of scientific material and principles. Because of the vast amount of scientific knowledge students may be responsible for knowing, it would be impossible for students to learn all of this information through simple memorization or direct instruction. Instead, TE 861A focused on teaching scientific principles like developing a hypothesis, designing experiments, and researching past discoveries. The overall goal of this course was to encourage teaching that would promote deep understanding within our students. Many of the lessons we learned from Professor Sharma utilized materials from Ambitious Science Teaching (AST), a program which shares this goal. The four stages of AST are shown in the diagram on the left, and each one helps to promote a deep understanding of the material. I learned that engaging units start with puzzling phenomenon that require a scientific explanation. These phonomenon dare students to learn about multiple scientific principles, and to combine these pieces of knowledge into a narrative, evidence-based explanation of the event. These explanations require deep knowledge of the principles at work and a true understanding of how each component relates to the other. Of course, AST does not expect students to develop these robust explanations alone. TE 861A spent a great deal of time helping our class to learn different “discourse moves” or strategies which can help students go beyond a surface level knowledge, and press for deep understanding. For example, questions like “Why do you think this happens that way?” or “What would happen if…?” force students to consider the reason behind their observations, and help them to develop a true understanding of the phenomenon and all of the principles behind it. At the end of this course, I put all of these pieces together to create a unit plan for teaching the human nervous system in this AST format. My unit begins with the students playing a game of dodgeball, then discussing how their bodies are able to perform such a complex task. The students are divided into small groups, and asked to explain how their bodies are able to dodge a ball. Each group then continues to refine their theory as I explain different parts of the nervous system and their roles in the body. By the time each group has developed their final explanation the members have a much more thorough understanding of all of the body parts at work in the complex process of dodging a ball, and (not that this is the point) they even perform better on my assessments than the classes before them. Ultimately, TE 861A helped me to remember that science, and therefore science teaching, is about understanding. Understanding both the discoveries of the past, and the process of questioning, hypothesizing, and experimenting, that will lead to the discoveries of the future.
Each of the three courses I mentioned had a major impact on my teaching philosophy and practice, but they are not the only courses that made a difference in my teaching. Every course that I completed in the MAED program, had some valuable lesson for my growth as an educator. I entered the MAED program with the rather nebulous goal of becoming a better teacher, but I can leave having learned specific ideas and techniques that have made me more observant and empathetic motivator (thanks to Dr. Oka), a more enthusiastic advocate for the power of mathematics (thanks to Professor Guzman), and a teacher who is more committed than ever to the understanding of science instead of the memorization of facts (thanks to Professor Sharma). As I prepare to leave this program I can confidently say that I am a better educator for having spent the time at Michigan State University.
More Essays
References:
- Wager, A.A., & Stinson, D.W. (Eds.). (2012). Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice: Conversations with Educators, Reston, VA : National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
- Wentzel, Kathryn R. & Brophy Jere E. (2014). Motivating Students to Learn, 4th edition, Routledge.
Photo Credits:
- Wentzel & Brophy (2014) Book Cover sourced from <https://www.amazon.com/Motivating-Students-Learn-Kathryn-Wentzel-ebook/dp/B00IKK9PGW>
- AST diagram sourced from AST website <https://ambitiousscienceteaching.org/>
- Wager, A.A., & Stinson, D.W. (Eds.). (2012). Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice: Conversations with Educators, Reston, VA : National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
- Wentzel, Kathryn R. & Brophy Jere E. (2014). Motivating Students to Learn, 4th edition, Routledge.
Photo Credits:
- Wentzel & Brophy (2014) Book Cover sourced from <https://www.amazon.com/Motivating-Students-Learn-Kathryn-Wentzel-ebook/dp/B00IKK9PGW>
- AST diagram sourced from AST website <https://ambitiousscienceteaching.org/>
Photo used under Creative Commons from Toolstotal