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Big Picture Action Plan

Heather A. Muller

Nebraska Wesleyan University

Dr. Mark Gudgel

November 26, 2017

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Abstract

This paper explores the journey of myself throughout Nebraska Wesleyan’s Masters of

Education Course “Reflective Practitioner.” It outlines what my key take away points were from

individual assignments that I deemed to be of importance. Of these assignments, I have reflected

upon two novels, What Teachers Make and The Essential 55, both of which taught me the

importance of reflection and left me with specific skills that have helped me grow as an educator.

This paper explores how strengths allow for improvement in the work environment and how I

can use my strengths to help me strive in my new teaching position at Cedar Bluffs Public

Schools.

Keywords: reflection, practitioner, implementation

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There are many useful aspects that I have taken from this first semester as a Masters of

Education student due to my enrollment within Dr. Mark Gudgel’s Reflective Practitioner

course. This course has taught me many things throughout the semester. Means this is a

reflective course, I will begin by showing my appreciation for understanding the importance of

reflection. As educators, I believe that reflections is, or should be, a key routine in our careers.

We are asked to put in numerous hours (official and unofficial) wrapping our heads around the

endless instructional strategies that will be most beneficial for our students. Not only do we

spend hours of our week pondering just this, we also have to take the time to develop lessons

based on these strategies, perfecting them solely for our administrative teams to critique. Not to

mention, creating separate, differentiated lessons based on specific students within each block or

period or subject throughout our days.

Knowing the amount of effort and time we spend on perfecting our instructional

practices, I think that it is very important for educators to put these thoughts down in writing.

Reflection on a lesson or a behavior or just a good day can really show strength and growth

within teaching practices. I believe that it is very important to reflect upon lessons, good or bad,

after they are presented to students. Doing this will help to better each lesson. Not every lesson is

perfect, meaning there is always some type of room for improvement. Doing a reflection on

these lessons will help to pick out the nitty-gritty parts and turn them into something even more

wonderful than what was taught last time. Another great aspect of reflections is getting anger out

on paper. There are times that I have been so angry with a student I just wanted to scream. Soon

after beginning this class I realized that being able to reflect on these challenging situations

allowed me to look at them from a different perspective. After reflecting, I was then able to piece

together why the challenge had occurred and what I could do in the future to prevent a challenge
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like this from happening again. I think that often we will react to a situation without fully

analyzing it or thinking it through. With reflection, analyzing comes more naturally. I also

believe that with enough practice, through reflection, analyzing situations will become more of a

habit that could be displayed not only in writing, but also during the real-life situation.

One class that stuck out to me over the course of this semester was “A day in the life of a

Teacher.” During this class we discussed our weekly duties broken down to each individual hour

(Appendix A). What this activity taught me was that teachers tend to take on a lot more “duties”

that they do not necessarily get paid for. I personally spend 11 hours of my day at Morton.

Breaking this down made me realize that the amount of time that I put into my work often does

not positively benefit me considering the large quantity of time I am losing. I have learned

through this activity that I need to be sure to take time for myself outside of my profession to do

personal hobbies. Doing this is a sort of detox to your mind and soul, allowing yourself to forget

about all the daily stressors that a teaching profession brings (a lot like the idea of reflection).

Accessing personal strengths are a major aspect in anyone’s profession. When you reflect

on what you are naturally good at, you will be able to pin point personal areas that have the

greatest potential for contribution within the workplace (Carpenter, 2017). The strengths that I

reflected upon were: collaboration, being personable and connecting well with students, and not

holding grudges. Knowing these strengths and applying them in my daily work contributes to

allowing them to prosper.

We were required to self-select a novel that would benefit our teaching. The novel I

selected was The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator’s Rules for Discovering the

Successful Student in Every Child by Ron Clark. I chose this novel due to a personal experience

while student teaching. During my time with West Point Public Schools as a student teacher, I
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witness 10 fellow “co-workers,” one being my cooperating teacher, attend a trip to the Ron Clark

Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. While in Atlanta, they were able to witness the skills that Ron

Clark discusses in his novel live and in action. The teachers always came back with stories and

brand-new ideas to utilize within the classroom. Knowing that this school district that I thought

highly of was spending money to send all staff members, I wanted to see what all the hype was

about therefore, I chose to read it as my Reflective Practitioner novel.

What I took from Ron Clark’s novel was a very valuable rule. First and foremost, it gave

me a great idea and example for my research paper in my other class “Literacy Instruction in a

Digital Age.” The research I did for this class involved looking at a problem that my students

currently possess and providing examples of interventions to put into place to help diminish the

problem. The problem I chose was writing complete sentences. In The Essential 55, Ron Clark

talks directly about how important speaking and writing in complete sentences truly is. He

provides an outline of what he uses each year to teach students how to properly answer all

written questions with a structured, complete sentence (Appendix B). Due to his outline, Clark’s

students were able to write more elaborate and thought out answers. This helps to broaden

students critical thinking skills (a skill that is more difficult to target with resource students).

After reading this novel, I began to implement this strategy with my small group of sixth graders

(Clark, 2003).

Another major aspect of this course was the text What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali. I

think that this novel fit well into the curriculum. Its focus was on the reflection of the educator,

Taylor Mali. Mali brought up twenty-six powerful situations that teachers go through throughout

a given school year. He told personal stories and thoughts to connect with the reader. To me, this

novel showed the importance of education and all the bullshit teachers are forced to deal with
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day in and day out. The chapter that stuck with me most was “Where do the best Teachers end

up?” This chapter discussed how the “best” teachers always end up in higher class locations

rather than in impoverished locations where they are most needed. Instead, the teachers that end

up in these high needs areas are young, first year teachers who do not stay for long periods of

their life. I can personally attest to this (Mali, 2012).

I began at Morton Middle School in January 2016. Here at Morton I am a 6th grade

Special Education Teacher. I come to school, co-teach the four core subjects (Math, Reading,

Science and Social Studies), and supervise my caseload during “homeroom.” I have a morning

duty that involves monitoring the 6th graders in the auditorium and I stay after school to

supervise students during homework hour.

During my year here at Morton, I have been cultured more than ever in my life. I am not

saying that this is a bad thing, but I am saying that it can be particularly difficult. Coming from a

very small community growing up, I did not realize how tough some inner-city kids have it.

Teaching at Morton has allowed me to grow in my profession and has taught me more about the

struggles of poverty, lack of parent involvement, and the idea of young children being forced to

grow up way sooner than needed. I am appreciative of these newly found real-word situations I

have encountered but, I am also well-aware that I do not want to be at this school any longer. I

am the definition of one of those teachers that “will almost surely try to move on after a year,

either to another district or, too often, to another profession” (Mali, 2012).

Personally, I love teaching and could not imagine being in any other profession, however,

I do wish to be in a different district. Morton has allowed me to grow as a professional and has

taught me many valuable tools that I can take with me for the rest of my career but the added

struggles, due to the location of the school, is not worth the daily stressors that arise. Another key
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component is the lack of powerful administrators within the building. With the behavior

occurrences being so high in a low income public school, the administration needs to be held at a

higher standard to diminish these negative actions. However, what I have learned from my year

at Morton is that the administrators like to “look good” in the eyes of the district. They do not

take all the correct steps of action when handing out consequences. Lack of consequences result

in reoccurrence of negative behaviors and constant negative behaviors drive good teachers away.

Currently my future is filled with new possibilities. I have recently, verbally, accepted a

job for the 2018-2019 school year at Cedar Bluffs Public Schools. This job was offered to me in

thoughts that I would be able to end my current contract and begin with them starting in January.

Due to the lack of Special Education teachers within the district, it is highly impossible to get out

of a current position because it would never get filled in a reasonable time-frame. Cedar Bluffs

has been in contact with me and has recognized this, making an exception in their hiring process.

They have promised me a position the moment I get my resignation letter signed and returned.

They realize that I will not be with them, more than likely, until August 2018 but they have

expressed their want for me to be in their district and have agreed to hold the position for me. It

is quite uplifting to hear these words come from an administrator’s mouth, especially one that I

do not know yet.

This small, suburban school has many positive qualities that I am very excited to

experience in the upcoming school year. This opportunity allows me to connect back to my

childhood love for small communities. I am a firm believer that smaller districts allow for better

discipline procedures, better parent involvement, and higher standards. I believe that better

procedures are set in place because the staff, students, and parents are all held to these “higher

standards.” This is due to the fact that everybody knows everybody. If there is always someone
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in your “business” than there is no way to slack within the work environment or home life. When

I am held to a higher standard as a teacher, I can perform my job with more precision. “When

what we do aligns with who we are, we will be much more likely to stand out and advance. This

is key to happiness, wellbeing, and productivity” (Carpenter, 2017). My overall goal is to find an

environment that allows me to leave feeling successful and positive and I pray that this new

opportunity will help me accomplish just that.

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Appendix A
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Appendix B
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References
Carpenter, A. (2017, August 28). 3 Ways Millennials Can Leverage Their Strengths To Advance
Their Careers. Retrieved from Forbes.
Clark, R. (2003). The Essential 55. New York: Hyperion.
Mali, T. (2012). What Teachers Make. New York: Berkley Books.