Synthesis Paper

Karen Van Poperin

TE 872

After I completed my first B.A. in Psychology in 2010, I realized

what I loved most about the brain is how it develops and learns.

Elementary education was a natural interest coming from this

developmental psychology standpoint, and so I stayed and received a

second B.A. in elementary education.

I enjoyed my Teacher Education undergraduate classes and had

many interesting placements in real classrooms. I felt more and more

intrigued by my new plan of study in the College of Education at Michigan

State University and agreed with its emphasis on MATC Standard 1:

Understanding and commitment to students and their diversity. While

psychology is a study of the human mind and behavior, education felt

like a fulfilling calling to have a lasting and positive impact and build

community with others.

 Once my Education B.A. was finished in May of 2012, I immediately

went into a study abroad experience in South Africa that summer to start

my MATC program. This unique first experience in the classroom showed

me that all the theory I had garnered in my undergraduate courses was

applicable even in a very different setting from Lansing, Michigan. I

remember feeling at this point that I could easily apply universal concepts

that the College of Education at Michigan State had taught me.

I had never spent so many hours in a classroom as a teacher, so

this was my first exposure to what real time and presence in a classroom

felt like. This realization in 2013 would later connect to my stance of

what “quality teaching” is for TE 807 in the summer of 2019. 

From Capetown, I considered my various placements in Lansing

and throughout my 4 undergraduate semesters in the College of

Education. I thought about how, even though I knew relationships and

identity mattered in the classroom, that I hadn’t really experienced

enough teacher-student interactions to carefully consider individual

students’ identities. I was mostly just observing, writing down ideas from

what I noticed accomplished teachers doing, and trying my best to not

feel overwhelmed with all they could do, and how unnatural I felt while I

was sort of “faking it until I made it.”

This summer abroad experience teaching in Athlone, just outside

Capetown, and taking courses with Corvell Cranfield (TE 815 Comparative

Analysis of Education and TE 894 Field Experience) opened my eyes to

the diversity of individuals and cultures. This was my first chance to really

involve myself into the lives of students, their families, and communities.

We say it about students all the time- that all learning starts with

connection- and it was this situation in a faraway place where I finally felt

a connection to my learning and to my students. I thought about how as

a novice observer in Michigan classrooms I had been unable to examine

the learning process, only the teaching process. With more time in this

profession, as a teacher and as a student, this particular MATC goal of

honoring individuals is the one that makes all the others work for me.
The process of education is an inherently human process, based on

relationship and interaction.

Obviously, learning and teaching are closely interconnected and

dependent on each other, but with more experience, I’ve developed an

intuition in my pedagogy that allows me to better monitor where my

students are in their process. I owe this initial change in orientation from

teacher-driven to learner-driven education to that first classroom I had in

South Africa. This understanding and commitment to student identity is

how you make real learning happen in their worlds. Without knowledge

about who her students are, a teacher isn’t creating meaningful

relationship or connecting information for real learning. 

When I returned from South Africa, I immediately went to start my

student teaching internship in Chicago Public Schools. I took classes one

day a week and was in a kindergarten classroom the remaining four days

a week. I remember that I felt overwhelmed with teaching four days a

week and with the coursework taking TE 801, TE 802, and TE 501 (or TE

803, 805, and 502 in the second semester).

I look back on this time as when I first starting refining skills

associated with MATC Standard 2: Understanding of subject matter, how

to teach it and how to design curriculum, instruction and assessment to

foster students’ understanding. 

This is when I practiced formulating backwards-design

assessments and corresponding unit designs of math and literacy

instruction. Up until that point in my elementary education degree, I’d

never thought about the scope or scale of designing several lessons

together. This was a point of realization for me about the structure of

good subject matter instruction. I learned how important the role of prior

knowledge is in any learning. Students should always be instructed in a

way that allows them to build upon what they already know in order to

make meaning of any lesson. 

 During this year of course work and practicum in a kindergarten

classroom, I also studied the gradual release of responsibility model,

both in theory learned from my classes and real life experience in a

kindergarten classroom. A good lesson should have a solid structuring,

starting with a clear and stated objective, followed by a teacher modeling,

then a guided practice, then an independent practice. I also extended this

learning to how I wished to assess my students. I wanted to check in with

my students before I sent them to practice independently, but as a

student teacher, I lacked grace with this process. With several years of

practice, I have become more efficient with my use of exit tickets and

other informal, on-the-go assessments. Data now feels less heavy now

that I know how to count it and use it to inform the next words I choose

with a certain student.

I also believe this was a time when I was able to focus on

improving my professional discussion skills, or the MATC Standard 5:

Communication skills and information literacy.  I was in classes with the

same community of inservice teachers that I had known from my

undergraduate classes. I felt very supported in collaborative learning with

my peers.

Upon completion of my internship, I found my first job in Aurora

Public Schools teaching first grade and moved to Denver, Colorado. There

were times during my MATC courses that I myself felt I needed more

practice to try out all the theory the College of Education had given me to

think about.

I taught first grade for three years and finally felt like I could put

ideas into real context or start to focus on MATC Standard 3:

Understanding and use of theoretical perspectives and conceptual

frameworks to situate and analyze issues and problems of practice and

policy. I had seen different classrooms and felt I could sense what was

happening and why, but still didn’t feel totally certain of my own

capabilities in directing all the events or having the sole responsibility for

a room full of children learning. Interestingly, with authentic situations

that I needed to be responsive to, I became more confident in my analysis

of issues that arose.

After these first three years of teaching first grade, I then moved to

Oregon to live and teach for two years in Lincoln City, which is a small

coastal city. This was the very first exposure to the realities of rural

communities and how their particular struggles differ from their urban

counterparts. In this situation, I feel I was able to focus on MATC

Standard 4: Reflective, systematic inquiry and study/refinement of one’s

practice, and began to start looking at how my own practice has changed

throughout time. 

This is my first year living in Portland (back to urban education) and

teaching a 2/3 split class, which is experimental and fun. I've also

recently become involved with the leadership MTSS team at my school

and am thinking a lot about how schools as systems work. I’ve also

begun work to establish an SEL program for our school. Next year I'm

staying at this same school and moving to first grade, which I'm excited
about because early literacy is a phenomenal process to watch. I took a

long time off from the MATC program and I’m excited to be finishing

now. I feel I’m only now finally able to point my attention to MATC

Standard 6: Proactive participation in collaborative initiatives,

professional learning communities, professional organizations and

teacher leadership beyond the classroom. 

TE 872 has lead me to think of myself as a steward of this

profession, and how in the zoomed-out, big picture, we as educators

must stay involved in the process. Quality education is a dynamic, moving

whole comprised of flexibility, presence, care, time for practice, time for

reflection/replenishment, and flexibility.