When I began my journey towards a master’s degree at Michigan State University, I was in my sixth year of teaching in the Bronx, New York. I had designed brand new curriculum at the schools that I previously taught at because both were fairly new charter schools, and neither of them have ever had a physics or psychology program. However, I was a new teacher myself, so the lessons had a lot of room for improvement. I knew that one thing that I was lacking was differentiation, especially for the most complex topics. I entered the Master of Arts in Education and Educational Technology to learn how to reach students of any skill level, both on and offline. 

 

Fast forward to March 2020, when government mandated remote learning be used for the entire population due to the coronavirus pandemic. During the transition towards a setting that most weren’t trained for, my goal was forced to be changed to focus on best pedagogical practices for online instruction only. I had unique circumstances added to the large changes that the quarantine brought about as I decided to move back to Michigan and begin a new job teaching chemistry and psychology at a more established charter school than I was used to. Here, I was learning a new school, working with new curriculum, and establishing relationships with students, all within a digital setting. Differentiation mattered more than I previously thought, as now there was no advantage of conversing with students in person about material, nor easily being able to read nonverbal cues of comprehension. Furthermore, the availability of technological resources for students provided an additional consideration towards making education accessible for all.

 

The last point in the paragraph above caused me to revisit my goals the most: originally, I was focused on the differentiation of material based on student reading and math comprehension levels, but now I want to ensure that grading and feedback processes are also an accurate reflection of student knowledge, regardless of how they express their mastery of content and regardless of their privilege. Technology makes all of this possible – there are resources that allow for student choice in assessments to easily be assigned, for reading levels to be adjusted based on student skill, for student engagement levels to be tracked using interactive videos, etc. However, as technology makes some aspects easier, it does not answer all issues. Although it is changing in some schools, much of student work is assessed based on aspects that may be out of their control. For example, attending class daily may not be a reality for some due to internet issues, lack of technology, or health issues. However, such students are still be assessed on punctuality or attendance, even though it is not necessarily indicative of their comprehension of course material.

 

My current battle and goals are then to develop a solution towards accurately assessing students based on skill levels and also simultaneously teach accountability, all while taking different accessibility towards technology into consideration. This is not something that has an easy solution, but I do feel more confident towards achieving this the more I enroll in different courses in this master's program. 

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