Megan M. Kole
Educator. Motivator. Life Long Learner.
Learning Like I'll Live Forever
By: Megan Kole
Some people talk about how they have always known that they have wanted to be a teacher, that learning was their first love and that they wanted to share that love of learning with others. For me, it was never that simple. I loved school growing up. I lived for it. I loved the smell of books. I loved going shopping for new school supplies. I couldn’t wait to get home to do my homework and felt accomplished when I earned the grades that I knew I worked so hard for. But when I graduated high school and was off to college, I had no idea which career path to choose. I decided to study zoology with the hopes of becoming a veterinarian. It only took me a semester to realize something was wrong. Although I adored school and all that it entailed, I found myself struggling in my classes for the first time in my life. After this first semester, I had an epiphany that while in college so far I had been learning for grades and not for the purpose of learning. It was then, that I realized learning is a life long process and I had to make a decision about what I would love to learn for the rest of my life.
As I pondered this decision that would affect the rest of my life, I thought back to my love of school. My “Aha!” moment included me visiting the “classroom” I created as a child in my parent’s basement. What better place to learn forever than in a classroom. Once I began my education courses, it was smooth sailing. During my remaining three years at Michigan State, I learned so much about who I was as a learner and as an educator. After completing my year long Teacher Internship Program, I was ready to start teaching in my own classroom.
My first year teaching was a crazy roller coaster ride. I had just moved all the way across the country to a new state, Arizona. I had to learn new curriculum, a new culture, and was completely on my own! I spent all of my free time at school or thinking about school. It was scary and I admit I began to feel overwhelmed. There were so many challenges and obstacles that I encountered during that first year, which helped me recognize that teaching involved a lot more than I originally had thought. I wasn’t just a role model for my students, but someone that truly impacted their lives. Although I was feeling overwhelmed I didn’t want to give up. Instead something ignited in me and I decided to turn to Pintrest for some inspiring quotations. I stumbled upon this quote that Mahatma Ghandi once said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
After reading this quote, I began to think of my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Nelson. I still remember what she looks like and all the great things that I learned from her. She made learning fun and enjoyable which is why it was so memorable. These kids, my students, were going to remember me forever. I decided that right then and there, what I learn isn’t just for me, but also for them. I decided that I wanted to learn everything I could for them, so I could be the best teacher I can be. I have loved learning because others inspired me to love it and I wanted to become that inspiration for my students.
My undergraduate program and internship year prepared me for the classroom, but after my first year of teaching I was ready to learn even more. I thought that being able to take a course and apply what I was learning right to my classroom the next day would be a valuable experience that would benefit both my students and myself. Living in Arizona and always being a Spartan, I was very excited to continue my education through Michigan State University’s online Master of Arts in Education program. I knew that this program would allow me to engage in inquiry based learning through the application of what I am learning in the course to my classroom. I knew that getting my Master’s and working full time was going to be a challenge. However, I was anxious to get started.
One of my first courses, TE 831: Teaching School Subject Matter with Technology, changed me as an educator in a way that I did not know possible. I had been reluctant to utilize technology in my classroom for a number of reasons. First, my school district and students did not have a lot of access to technology. Secondly, my fifth grade teammates didn’t seem as interested in integrating technology as I did so I didn’t want to stray from what the team was doing. Additionally, I was a bit nervous to “play” with the technology myself before introducing it to my students. Right away this course forced me out of my comfort zone, as part of my curriculum required me to integrate technology into the classroom throughout the course, yet I didn’t have access to any technology to utilize. I immediately contacted my school district’s Technology Department and lo and behold they had a classroom set of laptops and they were willing to give them to my students! After briefly discussing what I would use the technology for, a meeting was set up for the laptops to be delivered to my classroom for my students to use at school and at home.
Once I had conquered this obstacle, the possibilities were endless. I began spending all of my free time looking up new online technologies to use with my students. I discovered Front Row, a Common Core math differentiation website and application that allows students to work at their own pace. We used discussion forums such as Today’s Meet, Padlet, KidBlog and Schoology to discuss our ideas virtually. About halfway through the course, I had a meeting with my instructor, Erica Hamilton. I told her all about how this course inspired me to try new things and expand my thinking. Erica was thrilled to hear about my excitement, however, she taught me one piece of advice I will never forget: do not bite off more than you can chew. I had heard this advice before, as I am the type that likes to take on too much, but I never thought about it in terms of technology. I wanted to try a new technology almost every day, I mean I found about five different math differentiation websites why not try them all? Erica made a point to ask me, how are my students going to master the technology if they never have the appropriate time to explore and use it? I was so excited to try everything that I forgot to look at the big picture.
Not only did this course teach me how to re-purpose technology for my lesson plans, it also taught me to remember that integrating technology is not about trying every technology that is out there; it is about building 21st century skills for digital natives. This course pointed out that my students today have never known a life without technology and the skills that they will need to be successful are different than they once were. It is my job an educator to integrate these skills in all content areas.
For my Master’s degree I chose a concentration of Science and Math Education. Science and Math have always been my favorite subjects because they give students the opportunity to think outside the box and ask questions about the world around them. TE 861A: Teaching Science Understanding was the first course that made me see science differently. This course began by asking us the simple question of “what does it mean to understand science?” I had never been asked this question before. Thinking back to my grade school experiences, science was all about conducting experiments using the scientific method. I learned throughout my undergraduate program that this wasn’t the case anymore. But I didn’t truly know how to answer the question. To understand science felt like such a broad concept to me. How can you understand everything there is to know about science? It seemed like an impossible idea. However, this course taught me that to understand science did not just mean to learn all the science concepts out there, but to appreciate that science is not a linear process and isn’t just about content. Science also includes the practices, or skills, needed for science. During this course, I was able to learn about the new Next Generation Science Standards. These standards include science content, but focus primarily on the practices and skills involved with science.I began to teach lessons revolved not just around the content I wanted my students to learn, but the inquiry skills they need to use to learn the concepts on their own. Utilizing these standards in my classroom has made science a more active, hands-on learning experience for my students. Instead of me teaching students the content, my students are now learning the skills to learn and understand the content on their own. Just like my education, this course was a journey. It started with my understanding of science, then moved on to learning how to know if others understand science, and lastly discussed how to help my students understand science.
My motivation to learn always came from within. Sure, I was extrinsically motivated by the reward of good grades, but I had always wanted to learn for myself. CEP 802: Developing Positive Attitudes Toward Learning showed me the many facets of motivation to learn. As an educator, I know that every student is unique, but I have never thought to research motivational problems of individual students in such depth. This course gave me the opportunity to focus on one student throughout the course, while creating motivational plans for a variety of approaches such as cognitive, behavioral, and intrinsic. I now understand that motivation is a multidimensional concept, meaning each student’s motivation to learn may be impacted by more than one factor. Through the creation, reflection, and evaluation of motivational strategies, I was able to focus on how to promote motivation to learn in my classroom. While pinpointing my student’s motivational problem, not only did him and I build a better relationship, he grew as a learner. I saw him gain motivation to learn and he began to want to participate in school. I continued the process with more of my students throughout the year and our classroom community became a more positive one. Thanks to this course, I now have the ability to recognize, assess, and plan for a variety of motivational issues.
One last course that really helped me grow as both a professional and as an educator was the final course I took to complete my MAED program, ED 870: Capstone Seminar. This course was focused on creating an online portfolio to showcase what I have learned in my Master’s program and who I am as an educator and learner. This course gave me an introduction into effective web design. I had no idea how important things like font color, layout, and use of multimedia effect a webpage. This course was my first experience with creating a website geared towards a specific audience and it was a great opportunity for me to play around with various forms of media to make my site appealing to viewers.
Not only did I have the opportunity to experiment with creating a website, I also got to reflect on everything I have learned in my MAED program. I looked back at the goals I had first set for myself when entering the program and how they have changed since I began. I also looked ahead to formulate new goals for myself now that my program is ending and what my next steps are going to be. Lastly, I was able to think about what I had learned from my program through creation of a new resume, an annotated transcript of all the courses I have taken, and established a synthesized showcase of work that I had accomplished. This course allowed me to truly reflect on everything I have learned and how I have grown since starting the program.
To synthesize means to combine various items into one coherent whole. When I think back to when I started the MAED program, I had no idea just how much I could learn in two short years. When reflecting on my original goals I set for myself at the beginning of this journey, I wanted to learn more for my students. What I didn’t realize was how much I would learn about myself as an educator and as a learner on top of all that. Not only did I learn new strategies to become a better educator for my students, I also pushed myself as a student while working full time. I spent many nights and weekends working on homework for my courses, and thinking about my students working on homework for me. I am proud of what I accomplished and this endeavor renewed my passion for teaching.
The MAED program truly helped me grow as an individual. Thinking back to the quote from Ghandi I mentioned earlier, I can’t help but think about what his words truly meant. The first part of his quote visits the idea of living life to the fullest, that each day is a gift and you never know what could happen tomorrow. This not only holds true in my life, but it also reflects how I feel about education. Sometimes it is easy to get overwhelmed and look at homework and school as a chore. You don’t want to work on it because it’s a nice day or you want to do something else. I believe Ghandi was trying to insinuate that we should think of life and learning as an evolution of oneself. Knowledge is timeless and what we learn can benefit us throughout our lives. Learning is a life-long process and if you are not learning then what’s the point of living?
Never before did such a quote fit more perfectly, as although I believed that once I had completed by Master's program I would be more knowledgeable and ready to apply what I had learned to my classroom, I never would have believed that I, myself, would change as an educator and person and that the original goals I set for myself would evolve as they did. Finishing this program has helped me secure an educational goal and helped me accomplish a reward that will continue to grow - as a well prepared, open minded thinking and progressive teacher. As I reflect on my experiences one key theme emerges: being a teacher isn’t just about teaching students about subject matter, it is teaching them about life and how to become successful. I chose a concentration of Science and Math, but I also became stronger in technology, motivation, and reflection. Being a teacher is having the potential to change the lives of my students forever. This program has awakened my passion for education once again and I now fully appreciate that education is a gift and I am eager to continue learning forever.