THE ANSWERS TO MY SUMMER WONDERS

Every July, as I sit on a pool chair with a lemonade in hand and a beach towel at my side, I often close the novel I’ve been reading and start to think about school. Of course, I’ve been out of my classroom for a month or so, and I won’t meet my next batch of third graders for another month, too. But everyone knows that a teacher’s work is never really done, and each summer, in those ten weeks between wishing last year’s darlings a happy summer and greeting new, nervous faces at Meet the Teacher Night, three questions bounce around in my mind:

• How can I make my classroom a warmer place to be?

• How will I provide my students opportunities to utilize exciting new technology?

• How can I further encourage academic success and deep, meaningful learning?

For the past two Julys, though, I have not been on a pool chair but instead in Erickson Hall, attending classes as part of Michigan State University’s Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program. I sit with a coffee cup in hand and classmates by my side, and we discuss together a litany of answers to the above three questions.

WARMTH:

I believe the best learning happens in classrooms where students feel safe, loved, and cherished. I think it is a prerequisite for meaningful learning at all, in fact, and constantly strive to foster warmth within my classroom. But teachers may be hard-pressed to find graduate-level courses that value classroom community as much as measurable statistics. Luckily, TE 803: Professional Roles and Teaching Practice II exists, and oh, did I benefit. Even in their instruction of adults, instructors constantly varied instructional groupings, challenged us in fun team-building games, and laughed at every story told. I left each class session feeling heard and understood. I recognized that if my instructors had this effect on a class full of begrudging twenty-somethings, I could certainly do the same given a class full of children.

Furthermore, I remember that many of my biggest takeaways from TE 803 were not listed on the syllabus. It is, at its core, a class which serves to teach pre-service teachers about social studies instruction. Yet, I gained instructional strategies, classroom management techniques, and even call-and-responses to quiet a rowdy class. In a world of Common Core standards, it is a reminder that the “extra stuff” I manage to throw into my own classroom is very much worthwhile.

I took TE 803 as a student-teacher. Today, I begin every weekday with a Morning Meeting. My students and I sit in a circle on the floor and chat about character traits, sing a good morning song, celebrate student accomplishments. Students know I love them, made evident by the occasional teasing (this screams love in 3rd grade!), and although not found in the standards, we track USA medal counts during the Olympics and grow soybean seeds in the windows.

I’d like to think that part of my ability to manage a classroom warmly is inherent. I grew up watching my teacher-mom win over even the most challenging first grader, and I hope I treat every person I meet with kindness. But nonetheless, I am grateful for TE 803 and my MSU coursework for further inspiring and refining my skills.  

INNOVATION:

Prior to beginning my coursework in the MAET program, innovation and technology in the classroom were not high on my list of priorities. It was my first year teaching, and rather than dreaming up engaging STEM lessons, I was busy decoding the ways of my new school, grading spelling tests, and figuring out just how to manage a busy classroom full of eight-year-olds.

My perspective changed on a spring Friday afternoon. I have a friend in Germany, Lisa, who had sent my students a package of German candy a few weeks earlier. The tasty Haribo gummies had piqued their interest (I mean, tasty Haribo piques my interest, too!), so I arranged for a Google Hangouts between my class and my thoughtful friend.

I teach in a rural small town. Many of my students have never left the state of Michigan. What a treat it was to watch them connect with someone in Germany. Lisa shared a bit about German culture, but my students took over from there, asking about the climate, the animals, the geography, and even, “Do you have books in Germany?” A webcam is a magical tool-- my third graders got to hear my friend’s accent, listen to her stories, and ask her questions while making eye contact with someone an ocean away. This fueled their amazement.  

And while the Google Hangout session was a joy, my students’ enthusiasm for learning about all things Germany following that Friday afternoon was astounding. They checked out informational texts from the library, searched for the country on the map, wrote beautiful letters as a thank-you note. I realized that educational technology can have incredible pedagogical power when used meaningfully, and I was eager to learn more about how to harness it.

In CEP 810, I was introduced to the TPACK framework. This is the idea that the best teaching happens when appropriate technology is used alongside strong pedagogical practices in a fitting context. Now that I have gained classroom experience, my knowledge of pedagogical practices as well as my content areas and school population has strengthened. I am more apt to consider what types of technologies will be the most effective for a given lesson. It is November as I write, and this year’s students have already practiced geography on Google Earth, written letters to their parents on Seesaw, and created Google Drawing posters to show their learning. I know now that educational technology is not allowing my students to spend some free time on a math games website but instead utilizing it as a means of connection, creativity, and connectedness.

I am grateful that our increasingly connected world can bring increasing possibility for my students, even as they sit in the four walls of my classroom.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS

Last summer, I completed my second and last hybrid MAET cohort session. I had recently gotten married and moved houses. There were still plenty of boxes to unpack, and I was commuting from Grand Rapids to East Lansing every day for two weeks. I had a plethora of reasons to focus my attention on, and yet, I found the material fascinating. I enjoyed each learning day in East Lansing, even while knowing I would certainly hit rush hour in multiple spots on my drive home, and received a 4.0 in each class.

Part of the cohort this summer was CEP 800: Learning in School and Other Settings. We had the opportunity to explore various learning spaces on MSU’s beautiful campus: The Hub, the Main Library, IM Circle. We took notes on the learning structures made possible in these environments: were they well-suited for group work? Did they feature cutting-edge technology, or was it clear that this class would be more of a sit-and-get format? We assigned a learning theory that would best match each one: constructivism, behaviorism, or situative perspective.
It was an enjoyable activity, but the entirety of the two week class session served as a learning environment lesson in itself. Our instructors held discussion groups at the Schuler Books Cafe, we chatted about readings as we walked around Meridian Mall, we read informational text seated around the Brody Dining Hall. We practiced conducting research by observing other MAET students while they worked with summer campers. Even though a classroom in Erickson Hall was reserved, our instructors were constantly looking elsewhere for learning inspiration, and it made the two weeks fly by. This class was not a sit-and-get.

Furthermore, both instructors were warm, kind, and completely aware of their audience. They began each class with a funny YouTube video in order to give people time to get settled and stir the creamer in their coffee. We assigned a “Daily DJ” every day, awarding one person in the class complete power over the music choices for that day. Obviously keeping in mind that sitting in one lecture for a six hours would not be most adults’ idea of a fun time, they looked for ways to make the material exciting, funny, and collaborative.

As a teacher of much younger students, I must keep in mind that sitting in a chair for six hours is also not most third graders’ idea of a good time. I seek ways to make our classroom a happening place with enjoyable music on Spotify.

I also seek to provide my students with opportunities to explore other learning spaces. My school is fortunate to have a beautiful nature trail, and we venture down it for writing inspiration occasionally. Third graders learn about Michigan history and geography, and we take field trips to a working farm and even the Capitol building in Lansing.

As the course title suggests, I did indeed learn about learning in school AND other settings. I like to think that I do my best to do a little teaching in both of the above.

​

CONCLUSION

Next July, when I am sitting with my lemonade on the pool deck, thinking about the coming year and the changes I will make, I’ll have a much higher degree of certainty:  

My classroom will be a warmer place to be if I ensure that every child feels valued. I will laugh wholeheartedly when they tell a story. I will utilize more flexible grouping strategies and create partner pairs thoughtfully. I will continue to teach the Common Core standards and beyond, believing that social-emotional skills are as important as multiplication facts.

I will employ educational technology in ways that are applicable to my context and pair well with my pedagogical strategies. My students will use their Chromebooks not as an independent work time-eater but as a means of connection across our school, town, country, and world. They will create, build, and play.

I can further academic success by filling out the necessary field trip request forms and listening to my students gasp as they gaze on the Capitol’s sparkly white dome. I can keep their age and developmental needs at the forefront of my mind, and get those bodies out of their seats as much as possible. I will further academic success by making sure the material is exciting and even funny when given the chance.

And next July, when I am sitting on the pool deck with a lemonade in my hand, there will be a piece of my heart that wishes I were instead sitting beside my colleagues in Erickson Hall, solving all of the world’s educational problems while we earn our MAET degrees because I wouldn’t trade those long, draining weeks of ideating for all of the tasty lemonade in the world.