Knowing Why I'm Here
There’s a TED talk about the power of ideas and the most effective way to get your own idea across to others. In it, Simon Sinek explains that if leaders start in any movement by explaining the why behind the idea they want to promote, then people are more apt to follow. Sinek explains that if people know why they are doing something, they are more likely to do it. In the talk, he speaks of Apple’s advertising campaign, Martin Luther King’s success as a uniter around an important cause, and Wright brothers achievement of flight before anyone else. He explains that the success of each of those examples came because each understood, and was then able to articulate, why their idea was important. I would argue that my path through graduate school has also had incredibly more purpose because I can start with my why.
I am unlike many graduate students. I am not fresh out of undergraduate school and this is not my first master’s program. Instead, I had been teaching for 14 years when I began the Masters of Arts in Education (MAED) graduate program at Michigan State University. Prior beginning this MAED, I had begun two other graduate degrees and had amassed over thirty graduate credits - enough for a whole second degree! - but I did not finish either of those two degrees. Both times previously, I did not truly understand my why. I would go and sit in my graduate classes; I would get A’s on my papers. But it was just that - going through the motions of going to school. And quite honestly, I was working hard in other aspects of my life. I was busy with the things of life, so signing up for graduate courses faded in importance and eventually was forgotten.
Then the spring of 2015 came. To say there was one pivotal moment would not be true, but instead there was a creeping realization that I wanted something more. To change course. To be able to define myself in a new way. I wanted a new challenge. This master’s program has helped me to do that. With vigor, I have proceeded through Michigan State’s MAED program. I attribute my learning and my commitment to this path with one significant reason - I know my why.
Then the spring of 2015 came. To say there was one pivotal moment would not be true, but instead there was a creeping realization that I wanted something more. To change course. To be able to define myself in a new way. I wanted a new challenge. This master’s program has helped me to do that. With vigor, I have proceeded through Michigan State’s MAED program. I attribute my learning and my commitment to this path with one significant reason - I know my why.
One of the first courses I took in my Master’s program was EAD 864: Adult Career Development, a course that studied the lives of five different adults who had achieved ‘success’ in their respective fields. In that semester, I read the life story of each of those individuals considering what their contribution to the world and how their respective journeys had been. Each one of those people set out on a path that they felt they must, somehow, follow, and they just kept putting one foot in front of the other on that path. They each kept working and kept working, not necessarily having one big defined goal for what ‘success’ would be at the end of their lives, but each also strove to be successful in their work each day.
Each of these individuals knew why they were doing what they were doing - Steve Jobs knew why he was building computers, Linda Greenlaw knew why she was piloting a fishing trawler, Danielle Ofri knew why she was practicing medicine. Because each had an idea in mind of why they were where they were, they just put their heads down and got to work. Daily, they would commit themselves to excellence in the task at hand. Each day would be spent in forward motion with full understanding of why they were doing what they were. By spending a lifetime of looking for daily success, one cannot help but build a successful life. |
"By spending a lifetime of looking for daily success, one cannot help but build a successful life. " |
I think of my journey as both a teacher and then also through this master’s program in a similar way. I entered this MAED knowing that I wanted something more. I knew that my current path as a middle school Language Arts teacher was fulfilling and delightful, but also knowing that I wanted new ways to consider success. This master’s program has helped me to frame that and consider what that might be, so, with my own why in mind, I have put my head down and gotten to work.
One significant area of growth the MAED program has facilitated for me has been a greater understanding of working with adult learners. While I have in recent years really enjoyed working with adults, this master’s program has helped me to be able to better consider the needs of adult learners and then in turn to consider how I might help meet those needs. Through my coursework, I have come to three big ideas to always consider when working with adult learners: Start with the why, keep them active, and offer time to reflect.
The first need mirrors my own important realization in learning - and that is that if learners understand why they are engaged in the learning, they are better framed to accept what is offered. EAD 866: Teaching in Postsecondary Education centered around the dynamics in a classroom with adult learners and specifically addressed ways to motivate students. The difficult truth is that adult students are bringing a lifetime of previous learning experiences to the classroom with them. If they do not see value, or understand the why, in what the instruction provides, they will find ways to disengage. Adults are different from youth where consequences and rewards are a bit easier to manage. With adult learners, there’s no calling home for bad behavior. Instead, it is of utmost importance that the learners want to learn. They really need to see value in the learning they are to be engaged in. If they know why they are learning, they are more apt to be motivated to learn. If they are more motivated, they are more reachable.
A second specific need of adult learners is that adults learn best by doing. If adults are not actively participating in something, they are probably not learning much from it. The courses EAD 863: Training and Professional Development and ED 800: Organizational Theory taught me not only why it is important to offer active experiences, but then also how to go about designing learning experiences for adults where they can be active and participatory. Specific techniques to facilitate discussions, offer case studies, and engage in experiential learning were taught in these courses and can be used to help adult learners actively participate in growing their own knowledge around the concepts I am to instruct around.
Coupling understanding of why they are learning along with offering ways they can actively construct their own knowledge are two important principles in adult education that this MAED program has led me to understand. A last guiding need of adult learners is that they must be given time to reflect. Reflecting on what was learned and how to apply it moving forward in their lives is the last and most important step of any learning opportunity. If a teacher does not take time to offer reflection on the learning, students in their busy lives will rarely do it on their own. And since adult learners, specifically, are often so busy in their outside-of-class lives, it is paramount that they have opportunity to reflect upon and solidify their learning while in class. This ensures that the learning is given the opportunity to transfer out of the classroom and into the life of the learner.
One significant area of growth the MAED program has facilitated for me has been a greater understanding of working with adult learners. While I have in recent years really enjoyed working with adults, this master’s program has helped me to be able to better consider the needs of adult learners and then in turn to consider how I might help meet those needs. Through my coursework, I have come to three big ideas to always consider when working with adult learners: Start with the why, keep them active, and offer time to reflect.
The first need mirrors my own important realization in learning - and that is that if learners understand why they are engaged in the learning, they are better framed to accept what is offered. EAD 866: Teaching in Postsecondary Education centered around the dynamics in a classroom with adult learners and specifically addressed ways to motivate students. The difficult truth is that adult students are bringing a lifetime of previous learning experiences to the classroom with them. If they do not see value, or understand the why, in what the instruction provides, they will find ways to disengage. Adults are different from youth where consequences and rewards are a bit easier to manage. With adult learners, there’s no calling home for bad behavior. Instead, it is of utmost importance that the learners want to learn. They really need to see value in the learning they are to be engaged in. If they know why they are learning, they are more apt to be motivated to learn. If they are more motivated, they are more reachable.
A second specific need of adult learners is that adults learn best by doing. If adults are not actively participating in something, they are probably not learning much from it. The courses EAD 863: Training and Professional Development and ED 800: Organizational Theory taught me not only why it is important to offer active experiences, but then also how to go about designing learning experiences for adults where they can be active and participatory. Specific techniques to facilitate discussions, offer case studies, and engage in experiential learning were taught in these courses and can be used to help adult learners actively participate in growing their own knowledge around the concepts I am to instruct around.
Coupling understanding of why they are learning along with offering ways they can actively construct their own knowledge are two important principles in adult education that this MAED program has led me to understand. A last guiding need of adult learners is that they must be given time to reflect. Reflecting on what was learned and how to apply it moving forward in their lives is the last and most important step of any learning opportunity. If a teacher does not take time to offer reflection on the learning, students in their busy lives will rarely do it on their own. And since adult learners, specifically, are often so busy in their outside-of-class lives, it is paramount that they have opportunity to reflect upon and solidify their learning while in class. This ensures that the learning is given the opportunity to transfer out of the classroom and into the life of the learner.
In all, the MAED program has offered me the very things that are so important to any adult learner. True, this synthesis of my learning is a bit like that feeling of looking at yourself in the mirror looking at yourself in the mirror, yet at the same time it is an opportunity to think full-circle about adult education and how it has worked for me, an adult learner. As part of the MAED program, I have known my why - right from the start - I have understood my larger purpose to taking the courses and being engaged in the learning for this program.
I have felt, in every course, that each is a step down the path toward the success I seek. Secondly, I have been actively involved. From designing syllabi, conducting case studies of my own, and guiding adult training sessions as part of my course requirements, I have had numerous opportunities to engage in my learning in ways that have been meaningful. And lastly, I have had opportunities to reflect.
I have felt, in every course, that each is a step down the path toward the success I seek. Secondly, I have been actively involved. From designing syllabi, conducting case studies of my own, and guiding adult training sessions as part of my course requirements, I have had numerous opportunities to engage in my learning in ways that have been meaningful. And lastly, I have had opportunities to reflect.
In each course, there were opportunities to reflect both individually and in discussion with classmates on the content of the course and how it could be put into practice in our daily lives. Additionally, this capstone course has offered that opportunity as well. As a culminating part of the MAED experience, the capstone course offers the chance to look back on all of the learning, changing, and growing that I have done as part of this program. I can see that I am not the same person I was when I began this endeavor.
When I began the MAED, I entered as a person with a goal in mind - and having a Master’s degree in my resume was a prerequisite for where I wanted to go. I was hopeful that I would learn new practices and strategies to use both within my classroom walls as well as in professional development opportunities. Little did I imagine the growth that I would go through as a person during the period of time this degree has spanned.
When I began the MAED, I entered as a person with a goal in mind - and having a Master’s degree in my resume was a prerequisite for where I wanted to go. I was hopeful that I would learn new practices and strategies to use both within my classroom walls as well as in professional development opportunities. Little did I imagine the growth that I would go through as a person during the period of time this degree has spanned.
I now find myself confidently speaking about best practices in literacy - and drawing upon my experiences in the Master’s program as a source of that strength. Specifically, ENG 632 and ENG 633 have helped me to see that as a teacher, I have a voice that matters in the field of education. In both of those courses, I had the opportunity to explore areas of interest within the field of literacy, and study those areas of interest in depth. The question I chose to focus on for those two courses was answering the question, “Do teachers of writing change writers?” Or, in other words, “Is what I am doing as a teacher actually making a difference?”
By learning the process of academic research, then conducting research around that question, I learned that teachers really do make a difference and good teachers of writing really do make a significant difference in student writing. Conducting the research, finding the results that I did, then reflecting on the experience of the courses has helped me to better understand that I am a person who can impact education. Both in the classroom as well as in policy and decision-making, it is important to have people in place who understand that teachers truly do make a difference. As a result, I can now see why we as teachers do the work that we do, and I can better see that I am a change agent for reading and writing instruction.
In conclusion, the MAED program at Michigan State has allowed me to grow. Coupling the confidence I feel as a teacher of reading and writing, paired with my desire to work with adult learners, I feel that I am a person who can truly make a difference in the instructional practices of teachers in the field of reading and writing instruction. This thing that started as a gut feeling to want something more in my professional life has grown into what I am confident is a change in myself. I think I am a different person now than who I was at the outset of the MAED program. I feel like I now know why I am here.