Teaching as Evolution:

A Dedication to Evaluating My Practice, Seeking Necessary Change, and Always Finding the
Way Forward

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

Sarah Welc
PID A49573070
April 9, 2023
Introduction

Throughout my life, teaching was the only avenue I ever considered for myself and my

career. I used to imagine what it would be like to have my own classroom. I played “school” with

friends, and aimed to model the kindness and hope my own teachers instilled in me. I thought of

all the ways that my teachers helped me and others, which went far beyond just content. I

remember fondly the days where my teachers comforted me in moments of pain due to falling on

the playground or friend drama. I also remember the moments of joy, like when I could feel that

they saw me for who I was, and genuinely showed they cared about my well-being. It was

mostly due to these positive experiences of schooling I had throughout my own life that brought

me to the profession. All of the educators in my life had a profound impact on me and the way I

view the world. I owe so much to my public education and the educators that shaped me into

who I am today. And so, I never considered another pathway. Teaching was always the way

forward.

I came to understand quickly that education in practice looks much different than I

anticipated. Before actually becoming a teacher, many of the other educators in my life warned

me about the amount of dedication that comes with being in the profession. The amount of

grading that gets taken home, and of course the hours of preparation, printing, and planning. The

prospect of these things excited me, being able to track the tangible work I would be doing to

better my prospective students. I longed to seek advice from others, observe, and get experience

on my feet. I needed an environment that let me learn each day, unapologetically. Fortunately, I

gained that during my undergraduate experience at Michigan State, where I was supported

through research and valuable field experiences. As I joined the field, I truly felt prepared and

confident. What I did not anticipate, though, was experiencing a global pandemic during my first
year as an educator. The joy, excitement, and anticipation quickly turned to exhaustion and

frustration, along with the fear of not being able to meet the needs of my students in our

ever-changing world. How do you effectively teach in times when hope is hard to find? Where is

the way forward? Understanding that the field of education would forever be shifted, I worked to

find resources that would help navigate this transition, and found solace in discovering the

MATC program. Although I recognized that I wasn’t alone in feeling like I didn’t know how to

meet my students needs during an unprecedented time, the MATC program appealed to me

because it aligned closely with my desire to elevate my teaching practices and instructional

choices by encouraging reflection, differentiation, multi-modality, and inquiry within my English

Language Arts classroom. Throughout the program, I’ve grown to understand myself and my

purpose as an educator, through making a vow to evolve with my students by consistently

reflecting on the ever-growing needs of our youth, and how to meet those needs among the state

of our current education system.

Teaching as Vulnerability

In my first course of the program, TE 807, one of the first questions we unpacked was the

idea of what constitutes “quality teaching” or a “quality teacher”. Going into the course, I

thought I had a definitive answer to this question, especially as a novice teacher. I envisioned

what I thought to be a perfectly-run classroom and the intricacies of teaching from my

observations of veteran teachers. Perhaps the most important thing I gained from this course was

the understanding that “quality” education does not look one way, shape, or form, but rather that

“quality” comes from our demeanor, attitude, and willingness to seek out the best for our

students by challenging the harmful notions of education and our world, and becoming educators

that create space for our students within our classrooms. As a Secondary English teacher in
particular, one aspect of this is reflecting on the texts that I bring to my classroom, and ensuring

that these texts are varied, relevant, and reflect the needs, interests, and lived experiences of my

students. Additionally, I truly came to understand that “quality” teaching is not guaranteed in

each and every class session. Teaching is not predictable, and in essence, is usually

unpredictable, which is one of the things that makes it valuable, is the learning that comes from

moments we didn't see coming. I am surprised each and every day by the thoughtfulness and

vulnerability my middle school students share with me, and believe wholeheartedly that it has

helped prepare me to meet my prospective students' needs, and not make assumptions about what

they should learn. In many ways, my students tell me. I find comfort in the fact that my students

are willing to share what they want to learn, what they wish I knew about them, and what’s

important to their future. In many ways, this shows me the focus of my classroom, and continues

to reiterate that my classroom will evolve to meet the needs of each of my prospective students,

because it will be a space of understanding each other.

In my final paper of this course, I solidified my learning by reflecting on a quote from

Edwin and Phyllis (Fendler, 2011), “It matters not why we go into teaching, but what teachers

that we decide to become”. Ultimately, I have come to understand that quality teaching means

creating an environment where I can model to my students that learning doesn’t ever end, and

that I am always ready and willing to learn from them. I have continued to hold this with me on

my teaching journey, and a central facet to my practice is ensuring that I don’t ever stop learning,

and to create every opportunity possible to show my students the value in them doing the same.

Re-Thinking Student Assessment & The Necessity of Diverse Texts in the Classroom

Throughout the program, I focused heavily on my role as an English educator and how I

currently assess student learning through reading and writing. As our demand and reliance for
technology increased throughout the pandemic, the needs of my students (and future generations)

have changed. As I continued to explore readings and utilize data from my own classroom, I

came to the realization that my students needed more - more explicit instruction, more generated

feedback, more guidance, and more diverse, varied, and relevant texts to garner interest in

reading.

Two courses greatly impacted me in understanding how to determine student “success”

and growth in reading and writing, and also in how to appropriately assess and support students

through these disciplines. In TE 843 - “Secondary Reading Assessment and Instruction”, I

launched an inquiry project into the context of my own classroom, but also the reading habits of

students outside of my classroom. I posed the questions: How has student learning over the

past few years affected/contributed to literacy? What are the factors contributing to

adolescent learners’ reading habits and abilities? Through this inquiry project, I was able to

understand the importance of assessing students on multiple scales, but in particular, how to

utilize data in multiple forms to aid in supporting students and their needs. I was able to look at

data for my district, school, classroom, and for individual students to assess a range of needs, and

ultimately provide differentiated instruction and assessment opportunities for my students within

my classroom to ensure their success. After working through this inquiry, I have been able to

adjust my practices based on my students and their needs. I have also since shifted the grade

levels that I teach, and so this inquiry is incredibly valuable as a starting point each year in my

classroom for me to determine the innate needs of my students, and how I can ensure that my

students are developing an interest in texts, and being provided the necessary supports to be

successful in reading.
 Similarly, my experiences in TE 846 - “Accommodating Differences in Literacy

Learners” allowed me to navigate working one-on-one with a student to guide them through

understanding their reading habits and providing succinct and direct individualized feedback,

which is something that I do not always have the ability to accomplish within my middle-school

classroom, as I usually have between 25-30 students per class. This course allowed me to realize

how valuable personalized data and feedback can be for student growth and achievement, and

tracking my student’s goals and progress ultimately worked for the benefit of my student, her

guardians, and my overall practice in recognizing how to support students through challenging

work, especially when students show resistance towards that work. I find that this experience

helps me daily in my current classroom, in that it shows me how different students may respond

to independent support from an instructor in addition to our daily classroom practices. One of the

other things I have implemented in my classroom is not only data that I collect on my current

students and their reading habits and practices, but with my middle-school students, I have even

encouraged my students to track their own data surrounding their reading habits and practices, so

that they can take ownership over their learning, find texts they find interesting, relevant, and

meaningful, and receive the support they need to become stronger learners. This is something

that has been an incredibly positive change in my classroom, as I am seeing more and more

students find the joy in reading when they track how far they have come. I truly look forward to

sharing this progress with families, also. Ultimately, this process aided me in recognizing the

power of collaborative efforts – when educators, families, and students work together towards

the same common goals, all parties can benefit.

Overall, the biggest impact of these courses was the importance of taking the time to

learn about my students as individuals, and working alongside them and their families to reach
their innate needs. Unless I understand the whole student, I cannot effectively guide them

through the support they need to be successful. For many of my students, taking the time to

understand their interests outside of my classroom and the various non-academic literacies they

have really allowed me to guide them towards texts that made sense for them, and allowed me to

enact all of the best practices in supporting individual student engagement with written texts, and

success in reading.

As I engaged with this work, I made it a priority to continue to build a classroom library

that was inclusive, diverse, relevant, engaging, and accessible for students. I am still always

seeking new texts, and recognizing the ways that these diverse texts are a necessary addition to

my classroom and curriculum. The work I completed in TE 825 – Diverse Learners & Learning

Subject Matter – allowed me to reflect on the intricacies of “diversity” and what learners need in

order to be able to be successful. As an ELA teacher, this starts in committing to understanding

the demographics of my students, unlearning harmful notions that exist within “canon” or

mainstream texts, and committing to always promoting a classroom space of empathy and

understanding. Each year, as I work alongside my PLC to create curriculum for our

middle-school students, I center this as a need for our community members, so that we may

continue to provide the best materials for our current students. Recently, I attended the “Diversity

in Literature” Symposium in Lansing, which further inspired me that this necessary work

changes lives, because it allows students to see themselves, learn about others, and contextualize

the world around them, and how they can fit in it.

Technology as an Agent of Change and Engagement

Undoubtedly, in each coming year, we rely on technology as a necessary tool for our

practice. Each and every day, I utilize technology in my classroom for instruction, research,
student learning, student exploration, group work, reading, supplemental materials, and just

about everything else. Understanding the important role that technology plays in the day-to-day

lives of both my students and myself, becoming more attuned to ways that I can make the most

of technology and implement it in my classroom was integral to me, especially following the

school year I taught entirely in my district’s online school. During that year, I learned everything

there is to know about Zoom, Nearpod, Peardeck, and many other websites to create a classroom

community and improve student engagement through screens. It proved valuable – I “chatted”

with my students, learned the technological literacies they already had, how all of them

communicated digitally, and how technology functioned both positively and negatively for our

learning. Throughout the MATC program, I was pushed to discover more about educational

technology beyond the technology itself. More specifically, the research and inquiry behind the

importance of technology utilization, and how to increase that within my own classroom in order

to benefit students and have a positive impact on their learning.

In TE 843, the bi-weekly “Slideshow” assignments were an impactful way to visualize

how even small, seemingly insignificant changes can drastically change the readability and

accessibility of the materials I utilize in my classroom, and how they appear to students.

Although I considered myself to be very familiar with slideshow presentations and how to make

them visually appealing, these assignments truly allowed me to think further about how every

facet of my teaching needs to be thoughtfully developed to meet the needs of my students. With

many English-Language Learners in my classroom this year, I am seeing the direct benefit of

these lessons come to fruition. Additionally, this course allowed me to continue to think about

effective lesson-planning, and how structured plans can always be re-imagined with new sources,

new technology, new information to be engaging and meaningful for students. In my “Unit Plan
Project”, I took the time to unpack an existing unit of mine, but “hacked” it – adding

supplemental resources, additional lessons, opportunities for community-building and

discussion, class reflections, and additional use of technology. These changes were incredibly

impactful, as they allowed me to consider how it is always possible to evolve and make content

better and stronger, especially when considering multi-modality and the impact of supplemental

resources that are accessible and easily understood by students. Students look for ways to

connect, and we can always find avenues to allow them to make connections. I remember that

when I was growing up, I heard all about the projects I would receive when I got to a particular

grade, and those projects/assignments were always the same. Just because something may work,

doesn’t mean it is the most effective assignment or assessment for our students. I would have

loved for additional changes or efforts made to make projects more relevant for my

understanding, whereas I felt as though I had to fit the mold of the teaching, as opposed to

teaching adapting to fit the mold of my needs. In actuality, our students change every year, and

we can only teach our students when we know them. With the addition of technology usage –

especially in a district that is one-to-one, with Chromebook carts in each classroom – it is

important to consider the possibilities that come with additional technology usage and how it can

aid in our practice, especially as it is incredibly engaging for our students, as they spend so much

time on their own personal devices and popular websites, like social media.

Many educators are overwhelmed with the surge of technology in the field of education.

It seems as though every day, there is a new program or website in the world of educational

technology. As educators, we also want to know how things work before we show them to

students – we want to reach mastery ourselves. That additional work can be overwhelming, as

the necessary tasks of our profession never cease. However, in order to be reaching the needs of
our current and prospective students, utilizing technology is not only engaging, but necessary to

provide the technological literacies our students need to be successful in this century. Throughout

my courses in the MATC, I have learned an incredible amount about educational technology, and

how to ensure that my practice is always incorporating technology as a means to enhance the

learning of my students.

Conclusion

As I am reaching towards the culmination of my experience in the MATC program, I am

immensely grateful for the opportunity to learn alongside other educators, and to expand on my

practice throughout the program. While I came into the program at an uncertain time in my

career, I am incredibly certain now that I understand myself better as an educator, and that I am

prepared to continually work to meet the needs of my students, no matter what it takes. As I

continue to evolve my practice, I will certainly always keep space for my students in my

classroom to show me who they are, and I will model for them that “learning” isn’t

memorization and meeting arbitrary standards, but rather seeking to understand beyond just

grades, but further until we have no more questions about the world around us. That’s the only

way forward.

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 Works Cited

Bingham, C. Two Educational Ideas for 2011 and Beyond. Stud Philos Educ 30, 513–519 (2011).

Fendler, L. Edwin & Phyllis. Stud Philos Educ 30, 463–469 (2011).

O'Brien, D. & Dillon, D. (2014). The role of motivation in engaged reading of adolescents. In Hinchman,

K. & Sheridan-Thomas, H. (Eds.) Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction (2nd ed.),

New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Sleeter, C. E., & Carmona, F. J. (2017). Un-standardizing curriculum: multicultural teaching in

the standards-based classroom. Teachers College Press.

Tatum, A. (2014). Texts and adolescents: Embracing connections and connectedness. In Hinchman, K. &

Sheridan-Thomas, H. (Eds.) Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction (2nd ed.). New

York, NY: Guilford Press. (Chapter 1)