Embracing Change

MATC Synthesis Paper

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Master of Arts Degree in Teaching and Curriculum
Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University






Ashley Andersen
PID: A36985433
June 19, 2014







The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the
dance.
! Alan Wilson Watts
Who I am, what I believe and what I aspire to do are products of the endless changes that
are constantly pushing me to grow and challenge who I was before; before I was a student,
before I was a teacher, before I became a professional. Change is the result of using newly
acquired information to solve problems. As I think of my strengths and weaknesses across the
board, in each role that I play, I see that the two are intertwined. I seek to find an answer to any
problem that arises in my life, personally and professionally. I consider each endgame and what
it takes to get there. When I determine a solution to my problem I act on it immediately. For this
reason, I consider my strength to be that of a problem solver that embraces change when the
solution is known. However, when the solution to my problem is unknown and when I am unable
to see the endgame, my greatest weakness emerges as I become reluctant to surrender to change.
As a professional educator in and out of the classroom, I realize that each day brings
change and that embracing those changes helps to develop a professional identity. I realize that
my students change and that I need to adapt to those changes in order to meet all of their needs. I
realize that curriculum, assessments and standards change and that it is my responsibility to
transform with them. Throughout my journey as a teacher, embracing these types of changes has
been a challenge to me as I have learned to accept that I will never have all the answers. What I
do have however, is the desire to learn. Through the Masters of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum
program I have had the opportunity to engage in meaningful reflection and inquiry. I have
learned to ask question and acquire knowledge that will support me in my ability to embrace
change regarding my professional identity, differentiation and student assessment.


Building my Professional Identity
I entered my first year of teaching with ample field experience. Prior to becoming a
novice teacher, I completed two student teaching internships, one for my elementary education
certification and one for my early childhood certification. Through a study abroad opportunity,
Cross-cultural Teaching, I participated in another student teaching experience in South Africa
where I taught first grade for five weeks. Needless to say, I thought I was the most experienced
first year teacher out there. I knew just the teacher I wanted to be and the teacher I didnt want to
be. Then, when I entered my first classroom and began my first year of solo teaching, culture
shock took over. I remember asking myself, What am I doing here? The image of my perfect
classroom, my perfect students, and the perfect teacher were swept away by lack of support, lack
of resources, and lack of sleep- I was in survival mode. Everything I thought teaching was,
vanished right before me as I battled to keep my students engaged and revive curriculum that
was 20 years old. Its hard to admit, but before I began my first year, I truly thought I knew
everything there was to know about teaching. I had been so successful in my field placements
and had such wonderful mentors that my perception of myself as a teacher was inflated. I was in
no way prepared to fall flat on my face- it hurt. I remember being so worried about what my
students, their parents, my colleagues, and my administration thought of me. As I adjusted to
survival mode and I began to pick myself back up, I realized I needed to look at the big picture. I
needed to remind myself of what I believed good teaching is. I needed to remember that I was a
professional. I needed to understand that my professional identity would grow only as I grew.
Unfortunately, I did not learn this until my second year of teaching when I was also enrolled to
continue work in the MATC program. I was hopeful that my first experiences and my future
studies would act as agents of change and allow me to better define my role as a professional.

TE 807 (Professional Development and Inquiry) was the first course I was enrolled in
after taking two years off to focus on teaching in my own classroom, in my own school. I could
not have picked a better time to renege in my studies as the stress of teaching was overpowering
my desire to be an educator. In TE 807 I was given the tools I needed to reflect on my first year
of teaching and learn from it. During this course my passion for teaching was revived as I was
able to reflect and refocus on my professional identity. I was able to identify what was important
to me as an educator by mapping out the profession (Artifact 1: TE 807 Mapping Out the
Profession). I was able to read about problems of practice and engage in conversation with
colleagues. My active participation in these activities taught me that change is something to
celebrate as it often leads to deeper understanding. In addition, I learned that there is a time for
problem solving and a time for reflection. The solution to some of my most challenging
problems was found as I extended my own knowledge base. Realizing that my own knowledge
was limiting me was a revelation. I learned to think deeply about my own understanding
regarding education and educational practices and discovered effective processes to use when I
was in need of help (Artifact 2: TE 807 Designers Portfolio/Action Research). It was in this
course that I was able to bridge the gap between theory and practice. My work in this course
proved that my professional identity would continue to evolve as long as I was willing to
embrace the changes that came with it.
As my experiences with education have changed, my professional identity has changed.
Realizing that this change is necessary in order to be an effective classroom teacher is vital to my
continued growth in the field. As my time in the classroom spans across three years, I can see
how my professional identity has changed in just that short time. My greatest area of growth is in
my passion and ability to collaborate with colleagues. Asking for help was the first hurdle I

encountered as this involved admitting I didnt have an answer and realizing the endgame as out
of sight. Once I was able to tackle that obstacle I became addicted to the collaboration process.
This passion has pushed me into leadership roles within my school district. I currently serve on
the districts math committee; a committee comprised of grade level teachers that work to create
common math assessments. In addition, during the 2013-2014 school year I worked with a small
group of teachers and administrators at my school to initiate the Teachers Learning Together
program. This initiative is designed to get teachers into other teachers classroom to promote
learning from one another. In this work I assisted in creating a school wide resource guide that
helps other teachers learn about the program (Artifact 3: Teachers Learning Together/Field). In
addition to creating a resource guide, I provided colleagues with professional development
seminars on the topic, which ultimately led to the program becoming a school wide practice.

Creating a Differentiated Classroom: Using Assessment to Inform Instruction
Differentiation took on a whole new meaning to me once I was teaching in my own
classroom. The term, when used in my undergraduate program, basically meant adding some
modifications to a lesson that you were most likely not going to use in a small column on the
right side of the page. Now, as a teacher of diverse students, I see that planning meaningful
lessons for the whole group, in addition to individual students, is necessary in order to engage all
students in the learning process. Accommodating for the needs of the various learners that enter
my classroom, specifically in the area of literacy, has been a task I have chosen to pay great
attention to in my early teaching career. My beliefs regarding differentiation evolved in TE 846
(Accommodation for Different Literacy Learners) as I learned that planning for and providing
students with differentiated literacy instructions daily is key to a students success. For this

reason, I began implementing literacy centers within my 90-minute literacy block. While my
students engage in literacy centers I am able to work with small groups of children while using
an array of effective literacy instruction activities that are sequenced, systematic, intentional,
teacher-directed and explicit. In addition, during my literacy centers I am able to provide
students with individualized activities to work on independently. These activities enhance
student learning and provide each learner with additional practice at his or her own academic
level. In TE 846 I had the opportunity to work extensively with a struggling literacy learning to
create a case study that outlined the learners academic needs and instructional activities to meet
those needs (Artifact 4: TE 846 Literacy Learner Analysis). This process altered my beliefs
regarding differentiation yet again as I gained knowledge of child development theories within
the processes of reading and writing and learned how to use grade-level content standards to set
informed and purposeful goals that facilitate student learning. All students are unique learners
with different academic needs. Just as my understanding of differentiation has changed as I
learned to foster the development of each child, I am sure the instructional strategies I use to
meet each students needs will evolve as I continue to learn and as my students continue to grow.
Throughout the MATC program I have realized that creating a differentiated classroom
would not be possible without understanding, interpreting and using meaningful assessments to
inform instruction. Assessments provide valuable information that can and should be used to
further develop each students skill set and knowledge base. In TE 842 (Advanced Methods of
Elementary Reading) I was given additional assessment resources that I can now use to explore
student achievement and enhance my differentiated classroom. In addition, TE 842 taught me to
interpret assessment data in a way that will allow me to pinpoint student progress and then locate
research based instructional activities and practices to match student learning goals.

Although I see the value in assessment when used to drive instruction and create a
learning environment where students are encouraged to engage in multiple learning
opportunities, the very idea of formal assessments when solely used to track students is
something I am still attempting to understand. With expectations on the rise at the state and
national level and with the increased amount of standardized assessments, I worry for my
students. I worry that the assessments are not developmentally appropriate. I worry that the data
is not being used in a productive manor to promote learning. I worry about my students whose
test scores dont match their ability because they experience test anxiety. The information I
gained during TE 842 has given me more ground to question the use of standardized
assessments. In this course I engaged in activities that showed the value in using assessment data
to guide instruction and provide students with opportunities to reach their learning goals. I was
shown how best practices in literacy instruction can lead to student understanding and success.
For these reasons, as an educator I am still attempting to understand why standardized
assessment data is communicated back to teachers with a simple set of scores. What I see as the
purpose of assessments has changed since my first year of teaching to now. Although I am
learning to embrace change, I am unsure how to surrender to a change that I do not fully agree
with. This is an area I plan to explore further as my career continues. I hope that I will be able to
gain enough knowledge to embrace this change or possibly confront it and hope the change
embraces me.
In conclusion, I have realized that change is necessary to make progress. Most
importantly I have learned that surrendering to change is difficult but necessary in the field of
education. My engagement in the MATC program has provided me with one agent of change.
However, it has also equipped with a skill set that I can use to reflect and inquire on my personal

experiences so they too become agents of change. In the words of Anthony DAngelo, Become
a student of change. It is the only thing that remain constant.