Megan Terbrack
Classroom & Behavior Management in the Inclusive Classroom
Instructors: Dr. Troy Mariage, Mei Shen, & Laura Ann Oliver
We began this course by evaluating the behavior management plan that we each had in our own classroom and throughout our school. This evaluation helped me to identify my strengths and weaknesses with behavior management. This course was my first of many exposures to the features of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. We explored strategies used to prevent unwanted behaviors and positive versus negative reinforcements. Although the strategies were created for students with special needs, they are effective with all students. At the conclusion of the course we created a new behavior management plan for our own classrooms that we shared with our colleagues in our school as well.
CEP 841
Summer2012
Annotated Transcript
Below are my descriptions of the courses that I took for my Master of Arts in Education online program through Michigan State University from the summer of 2012 through the summer 2015. I have organized my coursework by concentration.
Special Education Courses
Technology Courses
Policies, Practices, and Perspectives in Special Education
Instructors: Carol Sue Englert & Mari MacFarland
One of the main messages from this course was to collaborate! Students think and learn differently so the more resources and strategies that we share with other professionals, the more we will have in our tool box to support our own students. I learned how to plan lessons and activities to support my students with disabilities using strategies such as universal design for learning and evidence-based practices. Universal Design for Learning is a strategy that actually benefits all students because you simply give your students options of how they are going to learn new material or how they are going to display their content mastery. Although I focused specifically on students with autism spectrum disorders, I learned how to use assistive technologies to give students with a variety of disabilities access to general education curriculum.
TE 846
Spring
2013
Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners
Instructor: Dr. Erin Jurand
Especially as a high school math teacher, I gained a wealth of knowledge about literacy in this course. I learned different ways that literacy is taught and assessed in all grade levels as well as how students develop literacy skills. The content for this course was out of my comfort zone so not only did I rely on the course materials, but I had to do a lot of research on my own. I found helpful online resources and I collaborated with special education literacy teachers in my building that I do not usually get to work with. I learned techniques that I can use in my class to support my students who are reading below grade level. I have a better understanding of how to assess what a student is struggling with, such as fluency versus comprehension. It was exciting to learn how I could apply literacy strategies in my math classroom to better support all of my students.
CEP 840
Summer
2013
Content-Area Instruction for Students with Mild Disabilities
Instructors: Dr. Cindy Okolo & Caroline Peterson
This course went deeper with the concepts and strategies that I learned in CEP 840 and 841 such as Universal Design for Learning and differentiating instruction. I examined different collaborating and co-teaching models which I found extremely helpful since I was co-teaching an Algebra 1 course at the time. The final collabortation application project was a professional development plan to help other educators improve their science instruction for students with mild disabilities. This was a great way to synethsize all of the content that I learned. I developed leadership skills throughout the process of creating activities and presentations that I thought would be relevant and engaging for my colleagues.
CEP 842
Spring
2014
Technology & Leadership
Instructor: Dr. Nick Sheltrown
This course was designed to illustrate how to use technology to enhance my leadership skills. I looked at ways technology can affect students in the classroom. I also explored ways technology can be used to support teachers through professional development, project management, and planning. This course helped me develop and realize my own strengths, personal constraints, and opinion about using technology in my profession. We applied both our leadership and technology skills by identfiying a problem in our school and developing an action plan to solve it using technology.
Teaching Students Online
Instructors: Dr. Anne Heintz & Trixi Beeker
I am an online student but I did not have any experience with online teaching before this course. I explored the affordances and challenges of online learning enviornments. This course challenged me to think about ways that I could transition one of my courses online. I explored a variety of course management systems and chose to create a blended learning course where students spent time both online and in the classroom. I developed strategies to promote student collaboration and communication to deepen their understanding of the content. I also created original multimedia material used for instruction and used online tests and projects to assess my students.
Learning Mathematics with Technology
Instructors: Dr. Ralph Putnam & Erin Stehr
This course focused on teaching and learning mathematics with the support of online technology tools. The most important part of using technology tools in the classroom is assessing if a tech tool is a good fit. I developed an evaluation process to go through to determine if a tech tool is effective. I looked at the learning objective, the connection to the Common Core State Standards, the role of the technology, and the learning support offered to the students. All of these components need to be considered when evaluating a technology tool to use in my classroom. I do not want to use technology just to say that I did. I will always use technology with a clear purpose in mind.
CEP 820
Summer
2015
CEP 805
Spring
2015
Classroom Education Courses
Concepts in Educational Inquiry
Instructor: Dr. Steven Weiland
Although I examined the history of education in my undergraduate work, this course exposed me to different educational practices from educators such as Vivian Paley and J. Robert Oppenheimer. I learned that not only is there inquiry based learning, but there is also teacher inquiry. Teacher inquiry is research conducted by one teacher within one classroom about how their thoughts, actions, and practices affect student progress and relationships. The work of Paley inspired me to begin keeping my own journal to reflect on my work at the end each school day.
Capstone Seminar
Instructors: Dr. Matthew Koehler, Sarah Keenan, Spencer Greenhalgh, & Chris Seals
This was the culminating course for my masters degree. I created an online portfolio to showcase the knowledge and skills that I have gained during my graduate work. I worked with my peers to exchange feedback on our website design and content. This course allowed me to reflect on my work and my goals thus far to see where I came from and give me a better vision of where I am headed in my future endeavors.
Psychology of Classroom Discipline
Instructor: Dr. My Lien
My biggest take away from this course was the reminder that I am in control of what happens in my classroom. I am in control of the environment that I create as well as the way that I react to different behaviors. I learned strategies that I can use to prevent unwanted behavior from happening in the first place. If my students feel connected to myself and their peers, feel competent with the content, and feel that they are contributing to their own learning then they are more likely to be engaged in my classroom. I also rediscovered the power of positive reinforcement when combined with corrective feedback and using it as a way to empower my students. I left this course inspired to start the new school year with a new classroom management plan.