Goal Reflection

In my initial Professional Goal Statement, I said that my most pressing professional goal is to improve my practice continuously. Our technology is constantly transforming, but perhaps more importantly, so is our culture. If we hope to meet the ever-evolving needs of today’s learners, our teaching must transform as well. Meeting the challenge of change has been a primary goal throughout my teaching experience and my continuing education at Michigan State University.

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The Master’s of Arts in Education program has prepared me for this challenge by helping me to become more reflective about my practices. I have seen many of my fellow students at MSU focus their attention on the role technology plays in our changing environment. But my courses here have opened my mind to other forces which affect our profession. In turn, I have adopted an important new goal concerning these forces: to teach with an awareness of the social fabric of my classroom.

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Any group of people is constituted of individuals, each with their own family, history, skillset, ideology, dreams, successes, and failures. Each with their own story. A classroom is no different. In order to reach each individual student, it helps to understand the context of their lives, and how that may or may not mesh with the context of schooling, which has its own history, its own ideology.

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In courses such as Classroom Inquiry and Curriculum and its Social Context, I had the opportunity to explore that history. The history of education in the United States is full of changes in purpose and method. It at times runs a parallel course with other fields, such as psychology or technology, at other times it takes its own course, such as when it prescribes appropriate behaviors to children. It is often injected with politics. 

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Another way of framing this new goal might be as striving for equity. Equity is a sort of buzzword these days, which finds its way into nearly every field of work and study. To me, equity means trying to understand where equality of opportunity has been lacking, and doing your best to adjust your approach on a case-by-case basis. Should I expect the same amount of homework to be completed by a student whose home situation is not as stable as a student from a stable one? Should my autistic student be taking the same assessment as my general ed students? Differentiation has always been expected, but true equity requires us to know more about the contexts our students come from. 

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My goals may continue to change as I continue through my career. I am confident however that changing with the times and pursuing equity will continue to be major aims for me. I have already taken steps toward these goals in my classroom and at the district level. We have formed an Engagement and Equity Committee consisting of teachers and administrators working together. I now see my goals shared by others in my district, and I hope that we can continue to move in the right direction together.