When I applied to the Master of Education (MAED) program, I had just transitioned from management back to being an instructor. I joined the program for three reasons:
-An interest in growing the selection of tools available to me to become a better classroom teacher.
-An interest in becoming better versed in pedagogy.
-An interest in improving my knowledge of technology in education.
Over the past eighteen months, some of those goals have been met and others have changed or been added. In my original goals essay, I specifically mentioned the issues I had in my novel reading classes. Through learning about writing techniques, such as feedback circles, I was able to get my students to engage in reading by using it to create their own work. Student reading and writing abilities were improved as well. I managed to get them to write enough to create a book of their own short stories (fig 1.), which will hopefully become a tradition going forward. I also have started writing more myself, including co-authoring a recent phrasebook (fig 2.). Though I wanted to leave management behind, a number of projects that I worked on became focused on training methods. I have been able to share these with my fellow teachers informally. My improved knowledge of academic research, especially literacy best practices, has helped me become a better teacher in the classroom but also a better communicator with other instructors. I have been able to shape practices in all of my teaching contexts thanks to the knowledge gained in this program. One way in which I have been able to shape learning is through technology. Learning online has made me more aware of the uses of technology regularly use learning management systems such as Google Classroom to bolster my teaching. Recently, I was able to get use this platform to put a variety of materials online for students that were starting internships in America. Everything we learned in class will be available to them no matter where they are. In the future, I hope to use the knowledge from the MAED program to learn how to choose technology that matches my students’ needs according to my design and learning goals. During my time in the MAED program, I also found a new passion; adult education. At the same time that I began the program, I also began a new job teaching adults. Since then, I have become more interested in how adults learn. I even added a certificate in Teaching and Learning in Postsecondary Education to my master’s. I hope to make progress in this field as well by using the skills that I have learned in my literacy classes and pairing them with my new found knowledge of andragogy, the study of adult learning. Though I have begun to meet many of my goals it is important that I keep going. Going forward, I need to continue to use these skills but also to use them as starting point for acquiring new skills. The program has allowed me to meet a number of other learner educators as well as been introduced to a number of resources that will make this easier.
Fig 1. A collection of short stories created by Chungdahm students that lined up with my learning in TE 848.
Fig 2. Contributor page from "Your Last English Expression Book".