Caitlin Johnson 

I always knew that I would be a Spartan, it was two years into my undergrad that I decided on being a teacher. The three years after deciding on my life’s career path flew by and soon I was graduating and finishing up my internship year. Shortly after accepting my first job as a teacher I decided to apply to MSU’s Masters of Education program. As a part of the application process I was asked to create a goal statement outlining what I had hoped to accomplish by the close of my journey in the program. Since I wrote the goal statement I haven’t honestly looked back at it. That is of course until today, as I looked at my goals today I was truly surprised at how much I have changed. When I first started my master’s program my goals were mainly based around furthering my knowledge on curriculum and the many programs out there on educational theory. Throughout my undergrad classes, and then in the few masters classes I took during my internship year we spent a lot of time looking at theory, and how to apply it to the classroom. I was anticipating my masters courses to be taught in a similar manner, and that we would be looking at similar literature on things like common core and literacy standards. 

Throughout my two years in the program I have been pleasantly surprised with how much I have grown! Several of my classes focused on the educational theories that I predicted and several of them focused on different things all together. What was a common thread in all my classes, was that I have learned things that I can take into my classroom right away. All of my classes whether they have been focused on my content specifically or the age group I teach (grades 9-12) or if they were open to all ages and content I have been able to use the resources I am learning about in order to further my planning, increase my ability to relate to and reach my students, and overall educate my students more efficiently. 

My original goals of the program were to further my knowledge on many of the educational theories that were currently in practice as well as those that were coming down the pipe. I certainly have grown in that area. I am glad that I have learned so much about best practices and research based instruction, however what I have gained has been so much more than that. I have truly grown as an educator in the past two years. I no longer strive to just understand the current educational buzz words and learning  theories and programs. I now strive to take the many things I have learned over the past few years and use them to enlighten and educate my students in a more compassionate and passionate manner. I have always loved my students and wanted to go to the ends of the Earth for them, but with the knowledge I have learned in my classes here I feel as though I can more efficiently do that for them. Ask any teacher he or she will always tell you that there is more that they could be doing, and they often times feel overwhelmed that they cannot do more to help their students. I truly think that in the past two years I have learned many strategies to accomplish helping my students more, without that feeling that I am letting other areas in my life suffer.