Throughout my time in the Master's of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program at Michigan State University, I have been using my course work as an opportunity to work towards achieving my goals, both new and old. This largely meant that my world revolved around one of three different goals- bettering my pre-existing lesson plans, improving my ability to provide professional development, and deepening my understanding of learning. Bettering my lesson plans has led to a better and more effective learning experience for my students. Improving my professional development ability has helped me to nurture growth in other educators within my system, helping both them and their students. Deepening my understanding of learning has helped me to both be a better teacher and a better leader. You can view samples of my progress towards each of these goals below.
Revamped Lesson Plans
Environmental Economics and Policy Unit
This unit is a redesign of a unit that my students had historically disliked because it felt hands-off compared to other lab-heavy units within the curriculum. It covers more social science aspects of environmental science, such as how our society structure impacts how we care about the environment and how systemic injustices are linked to environmental issues.To redesign this unit, I took the pre-existing unit structure and used various technologies to make the unit more engaging and project-based. I have implemented this redesigned unit in my classroom and saw both high levels of engagement and understanding amongst all of my students. |
Mollusk Mini-Unit
This lesson plan was born from my need to find an engaging alternative to a dissection-based unit on mollusks during virtual learning. Because the dissection portion is so crucial for understandings of comparative anatomy, it was important to find another engaging way to get students to think critically about anatomical differences. This lesson showcases both my ability to utilize a variety of technology platforms (PearDeck, Jamboard, Padlet) in a meaningful way that improves understanding while also engaging students in 21st century skills. |
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2018, August 30). Spotted Lanternfly [Photograph]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/42810653630/in/album-72157697839962692/
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Smashing Lanternflies with Raspberry Pi
This unit plan utilizes both a local real world problem (the invasive Spotted Lanternfly) and the engineering design process to engage students in an in-depth study of ecological principles. Students learn about the ecology of the spotted lanternfly while designing traps that can be used to kill them and limit their negative impact. After rounds of iterative trap design, students use Raspberry Pi to collect data on their traps' efficiency and work to create proposals to local leaders on solutions to our lanternfly problem. This unit plan showcases my ability to take a Project-Based Learning approach to curriculum while utilizing the TPACK framework. |
Professional Developments and Tech Tutorials
Pear Deck Professional Development
This professional development consists of two phases- some curated Pear Deck resources to be sent out prior to the PD to allow for self-exploration and time to download the required application, and the Pear Deck PD slides that are run through Pear Deck to both demonstrate how the tool works and to facilitate discussions about why it is worth using in the classroom. This PD showcases my ability to provide support for teachers by trying to help them with areas of need. |
My demonstration video
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Google Voice Typing Quick Demo
This video is a quick tutorial and breakdown of the affordances and constraints of the Google Voice Typing feature. It showcases my ability to thoroughly assess a given tech tool, as well as to create a concise resource to support teachers. |
Universal Design for Learning Professional Development
This professional development was created from a desire to help teachers in my school system make their courses more accessible for all students, regardless of disability, race, socioeconomic standing, or anything else that could impact how a student connects with school. This piece showcases my ability to lead an activity-based PD that can apply to teachers of any grade level or setting. |
Learning About Learning
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My Leadership Philosophy
This video essay was the culmination in a semester-long study on leadership. After reading and practicing different leadership styles and scenarios, I reflected upon my own actions as a leader and took time to put my leadership style into words. I believe in using your relationships with other people to seek common ground and utilizing that for leadership purposes. |
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21st Century Learning
This video essay was the result of research I did on the various definitions for 21st century skills. I ended up settling on the "4 C's" model as my preferred definition, and made this video to break down what that model means and how it looks in my classroom practice. This video showcases my understanding of 21st learning, best practices in my classroom, and my ability to be reflective about my practice. |
Personal Theory of Learning
There are a million different ways that people have attempted to define learning- most of them are at least partially correct, but much like philosophy each framework has its flaws or things that it cannot quite explain fully. After diving deep into the literature that exists on multiple learning theories, I developed my own theory synthesized from currently existing theories. Read about my theory by downloading the pdf below, or check on the diagram on the left. |
Shifting Away From Cheating Culture
This study was an exploration that I did to explore if there were any common threads on when and why students cheat across grade levels and subjects. I collected survey data from 140 educators across the country, synthesized their responses, and compared it to current data on cheating culture. These research findings also contain suggestions for best practices that could immediately be used in classrooms. This piece showcases my ability to use data and research to try and solve larger-scale educational problems. |