When I began completing my Master of Arts in Education at Michigan State University, my goals focused on the idea of becoming a better teacher, an effective teacher.  When I first applied, I had only been teaching for a year and was completing overwhelmed by everything going on.  I looked forward to getting a higher degree and developing a better understanding of the teaching profession.  I chose to focus my concentration on literacy education because I wanted to take classes that would provide me an insight into increasing my skills into teaching literacy; whether that is strategies and ideas for reading and writing or providing assistant to the diverse needs of my students in my classroom.  My overall focus was specifically on literacy education.

 

            One thing I realized very quickly was that I cannot do everything at once and that not everything would be learned and developed in one day or even one semester.  I had to tackle one thing at a time.  What I realized after that was that I really had to think about my goals changing into considering my students first.  Everything I was doing, and am doing, should be for the benefit of my students.  I started to take classes like Educating Students with Challenging Behaviors and Awards and Classics of Children’s Literature.  I wanted my classroom to thrive and that starts with the students.

 

            Now, near the end of completing my Master of Arts in Education, some of my goals have stayed the same and some have developed.  My goals now still focus on literacy and developing my understanding of teaching literacy.  However, I think I have developed my goals to focus on the backgrounds of my students and how I can use their backgrounds in the classroom.  As a classroom teacher, I want to continually stay up to date with strategies, research, skills, ideas, and tools that would be beneficial in teaching literacy.  But, I also want to continually stay up to date with these same things for the diverse needs of my students.  I came to the realization that each of my students are different (which I knew before but experiencing all of those differences is eye-opening) and I need to harness those differences into creating a classroom community.

 

            My goals have stayed the same and developed because of experience.  I went into this Master’s program with little experience in the classroom.  Since then, I’ve had a wide range of experiences that are shaping who I am as a teacher and what I believe in.  My goals are going to continue to change and develop and will never be something I can just check off.  Each year, I am going to be reflecting and evolving my goals to fit who I am and who I want to be.