The Evolution of my Stance on Quality Teaching

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

Patrick King
PID: A39168141
April 17, 2016

From the start of my first year teaching, I have struggled with several aspects of teaching
as a profession, as my profession. I never felt that teaching was my calling, so to speak, or that
I was meant to be a teacher. I have always been uncomfortable with the narrative that teachers
belong in the classroom; rather I just found something I enjoyed, and something that I heard
resoundingly from those around me that I was good at. However, my struggle has always been
with this notion of what makes a good teacher, and how one receives feedback on their
pedagogy and their practices within the classroom. Teaching is a profession in which feedback,
both constructive and evaluative, comes largely from a brief observation or a set of test results.
Day to day, it is primarily a teachers burden to determine the quality of their work, and I had an
extremely hard time with it, especially when I was hearing from all the people in the know
how well I was doing.
Quality teaching is a topic at the center of our nations discussion on education, and its
something that has no clear-cut, universal definition. As a first year teacher hearing that I was
much further along than anticipated, I spent a good portion of time reflecting on what that
really meant. Was I expected to be incompetent? Broken down at my desk? Unable to contain
my classroom? Or was I actually doing well by my students educational needs? I hadnt a clue,
and it was frustrating to me that I didnt get a more useful standard by which to assess myself.
And then, as the year progressed, I grew more frustrated with the notion that I didnt get very
much substantive feedback on my teaching.
My journey through the MATC program was a bit unorthodox, as I took a three-year
hiatus in the middle of my studies. When I first applied for the MATC program, I was about to
graduate and I wanted to study abroad prior to my student teaching internship. I would be
certified to teach both English and math, and was under the impression that teaching math would

be a real possibility, so I didnt want to pick a content-specific graduate program. When I looked
into the MATC program, it seemed to fit my interest in looking at pedagogy with a critical lens,
so I applied. What I found was a program that would eventually delve into my curiosities and
insecurities with the profession, and lead me to become a much more introspective, confident,
and quality teacher.
During my study abroad trip in Europe, we were required to take two Counseling and
Educational Psychology (CEP) courses, primarily focused on teaching with technology through a
global perspective. Heading into the program, I had no classroom experience to identify with,
and I think that made a huge difference in the way I framed my mindset. The classroom visits,
interviews, and cultural immersion each played a role in establishing my open-mindedness and
critical thinking toward our education system in America, and a lot of the things we accept as
being the right way to do things. Because I had not been a teacher yet, I didnt have a realistic
view of the politics and bureaucracy side of things, which allowed me to take a more theoretical,
optimistic view on what I was seeing and experiencing. One of the things I questioned in
Artifact 5 is the relative lack of censorship present in the schools I saw compared to what we
have in the United States. This struck me at the time because it was such a vast difference to
what I considered commonplace, but in considering it now, I think there was also an element of
being intimidated by the level of openness as an educator- I wasnt sure I felt ready to confront
some of these topics in my classroom, and I think that would have been a detriment to my
students. One way my study abroad experience helped me confront these reservations was by
facilitating several activities that took me out of my comfort zone. In one instance, I recorded
myself taking a random bus to a part of Maastricht I was unfamiliar with and attempting to get
back to our hotel with no maps, using the help of local people as my only resource. In thinking

back on these assignments, they went a long way toward helping me push my comfort zones and
commit to immersing myself in things I find challenging. As a beginning teacher, I found this
experience invaluable, and extremely powerful in preparing me to walk into a classroom as a
leader. This contributed significantly to my positive experience in the MATC program, as well
as to my professional identity as a classroom teacher.
As I progressed through my internship year, I had a few successes and a whole lot of
failures. That year of student teaching was the hardest year of my life, but thinking back on it, I
improved leaps and bounds by having a supportive yet constructive mentor teacher. I loved
getting immediate feedback, discussing what happened in class and what I could do differently
moving forward, with a constant eye on constructive communication. Our corresponding classes
focused a lot on tangible, process-based improvements we could make in our classrooms (along
with a lot of support for our struggles). These courses, TE 801, TE 802, and TE 804, laid the
foundation in my exploration and improvement in MATC standards 2 and 4. The two artifacts I
selected from these classes (Artifacts 3 and 6) are both related to focused, specific changes I
made through inquiries in my classroom. The importance of these are in establishing myself as a
reflective teacher, constantly seeking to better my practices and philosophy. Artifact 3 marked an
important step in my learning because it marked the first time I methodically selected an area to
improve on, researched what I could do to get there, and implemented it, documenting results
from my own classroom and seeing marked improvement. This inquiry process became a
mainstay of my teaching moving forward, establishing a precedent of how I could break down
my practice and identify a specific goal moving forward.
Artifact 6, on the other hand, deals with the process of differentiation and looking at
practical ways to implement it. Differentiation had always been something that I knew played a

huge role in quality teaching, but I never had a grasp on what it realistically looked like and how
it was possible to carry out day-to-day in my classroom. Our assignment was to identify a topic,
find as much relevant research as we could on it, and put it into practice. In the end, we were to
create a one-page handout that other teachers could use as a beneficial resource on the subject.
In thinking back on the experience, it opened my eyes to the diversity I had in my classroom,
from varying reading levels to types of learning preferences to cultural backgrounds. It helped
me gain perspective on my role as an educator for 28 individuals rather than just one class of
American Literature students. I began taking into account who would thrive in certain situations
and who would need additional scaffolding, and I was now prepared to meet those needs. While
the handout is not particularly dense, it represents a powerful shift in the way I thought about
preparing for and planning my instruction, which certainly contributed to my growth into a
quality teacher.
As I launched into my first year of teaching, I got away from some of the critical
practices I valued during my student teaching. My first job was teaching math, which vastly
differed from my previous experiences, which had all been in English. I felt overwhelmed trying
to plan for three math classes, keep up with grading, and balancing these responsibilities with
coaching I had (foolishly) volunteered for. On top of that, I no longer had a mentor teacher
whose focus was on collaborating and improving my practice; the onus was now on me, and I
was having all kinds of trouble figuring things out on my own. Whereas all my feedback was
resoundingly positive, I did not feel like I was fulfilling my potential as a teacher.
The summer following my first year of teaching led to a lot of reflection on my
pedagogy, my role as a teacher, and if this was something I wanted to commit to doing. I had not
felt successful in my first year, and I thought hard about what changes I wanted to make moving

forward. Once I decided I was in, I felt a bit relieved- I had gotten passed the first year, I felt a
bit more comfortable with the math content, and I knew I had the ability to be a charismatic
leader at the front of a classroom.
Over the next two years, I implemented similar strategies to those I had used during my
internship year, focusing on specific methods to improve my instruction. I was able to tailor
some strategies I had used previously to my math lessons, promoting critical and metacognitive
thinking throughout our activities. While I felt more confident in my teaching, I still struggled
with the lack of outside perspective and feedback. I wanted a more nuanced understanding of
what I could be doing to improve, and the anecdotal observations and comments from colleagues
were of little substance. I knew I had 15 credits more to complete my graduate degree, and
feeling stagnated professionally, I felt it was an excellent time to finish it up.
The summer following the 2014-2015 school year, I enrolled in TE 807 Professional
Development and Inquiry. This course became one of the most impactful classes I took, and one
that continues to shape my perceptions of education. The first assignment we embarked on was
crafting a stance on what makes quality teaching. I was able to rattle off a relatively quick,
comprehensive response that I think would have sufficed for the assignment, and then I deleted
it. I thought about my inner struggles during that first year, and about how I had really no feel on
whether I was succeeding or not. Rather than considering test scores or observation feedback, I
really thought about what I wanted my classroom to look like, to feel like, and how I wanted to
engage students in the content. I considered what teaching style had become, and whether that
style was the best one for me. It was refreshing to step back and consider the bigger picture,
reconsider my values and views, and put together a comprehensive idea of what kind of educator
I wanted to become.

Discussing the overarching idea of teaching quality in TE 807, in hindsight, allowed

me to focus on more specific topics with significantly more drive and passion than I had
previously. I felt much more at home in my role as a teacher, and more at ease with the notion
that I was grounded and confident in my philosophy as an educator. I was becoming more aware
of what I expected out of myself, and how I could hold myself accountable for my teaching by
way of reflection. In thinking back on my first three years in the classroom, I was able to
tangibly pick out some decisions I would change, and some things I was doing that werent
working as intended. This, in my mind, was what I had struggled with so much in the past.
When I thought back on a lesson, I wasnt entirely sure what I was looking for, or what made a
learning opportunity really work. After crafting an initial stance on quality teaching, I was able
to hold myself up to that standard I had created, and felt confident in. Specific decisions could
be measured up to this rubric and assessed, therefore allowing me to get the feedback I so
desperately wanted.
That same summer, an opportunity presented itself for me to step out of the classroom
and work for a faction of The College Board titled SpringBoard, a program focused on
implementing rigor and collaboration into the math classroom along with a collection of
reading, writing, and problem-solving strategies. I was certified as a National Professional
Development Trainer and worked with a variety of schools and districts across the country,
facilitating workshops for teachers new to SpringBoard. When I initially received notice of the
job, I hated the idea of it- I dont enjoy public speaking among peers and I didnt feel qualified to
lead professional development. However, when I thought through the opportunity, I came to
realize that it was an incredible chance to grow professionally and push me out of my comfort
zone. In addition, accepting the job meant a lot of professional development for me, specifically

in learning best practices and collaborating with successful teachers nation-wide. It was
something I felt would supplement my MATC course work perfectly; I could learn from other
teachers what they did to be successful while sharing an area of my expertise with them.
The last year has been instrumental in my growth as an educator, especially in my
continued quest to refine my definition of quality teaching. As it relates to the MATC program,
this experience has been my best artifact relating to Standard 6 and Goal 3. Prior to accepting
this job, I never considered myself to be a leader in the field of education. I was a willing
participant in professional learning communities in my school, but I rarely went above and
beyond that. By facilitating professional development for a variety of teaching groups, I was
able to contribute to the growth of educators nationwide, impacting the instruction thousands of
students will receive. I have become much more adept at acknowledging others teaching
experiences and expertise, while figuring out what areas we can work together to grow in.
As I began implementing these trainings, I was enrolled in two courses that were able to
shape my classroom intentions as well as those I implemented as a trainer. CEP 802Development of Positive Attitudes to Learn, dealt with topics I (and probably every other teacher
out there) struggled with at length in my experience. We were introduced to a variety of
motivational approaches and strategies, and asked to apply these to various scenarios and student
behaviors. In my mind, this was absolutely an essential aspect of what makes a quality teacher,
but it largely had not found its way into my stance on quality teaching the previous semester.
Student motivation is more nuanced than I had accounted for, and an element of teaching that I
had considered a strength, largely due to my outgoing, relatable personality. However, in pitting
approaches against each other, trying to find the most beneficial approach to use in certain
situations, I found myself reflecting back to various interactions throughout my first three years

in the classroom, thinking about what a difference these ideas could have made. For our final
project, I was able to apply my research throughout the year to a case study on a participant in
one of my professional development sessions. Prior to this, I did not have the chance to
explicitly connect my MATC studies with my Springboard work, so this project had a lot of
authenticity for me. It allowed me to extend my thinking of what makes quality teaching beyond
my high school classroom and into my professional development sessions, and see common
threads throughout. Where I struggled initially with teachers that were problematic in the
beginning of the sessions, this project helped me to identify where I could form common ground
with participants and how I could play into their motivations more effectively.
During that same fall semester, I was also working through CEP 816, which centered on
new media tools and how they could be implemented into instruction efficiently and rewardingly.
This tied in to my professional development sessions as well because there is a SpringBoard
Digital platform that is relatively new, and the writing team had been experimenting with how to
integrate the technology into the trainings. I was able to contribute ideas to that project, relating
to my research on cognitive load in preparing digital resources. This class revitalized my view
on technology in the classroom as more than just a hoop to jump through, as we investigated how
to use technology as a core aspect of curriculum instruction and assessment. It also prompted me
to reflect on my past uses of technology, critically considering my purpose and how effective it
was. Part of quality teaching is the notion that everything we are doing has a purpose related to
the growth of our students, and I was able to align my technology usage with this idea. The
website I created for my final project here is one that I will be using in my classroom next year,
complete with the technology tools and resources that accompany it.

As I think back on my experience in the MATC program from start to finish, I am

overwhelmed by the transformation it has had on my teaching. I have been able to confront my
most daunting challenges through the inquiries, research, and experiences I have had in my
graduate courses. What began as an initial assignment in TE 807 turned into a philosophy I have
continued to revise and apply to my professional work every day. Quality teaching is not
something I have a set definition for, yet I do have a firmly rooted perspective on what goes into
it and what it looks like. My biggest hurdle has been coming to terms with myself as my own
primary evaluator, and finding a way to hold myself accountable with a sensible process for
evaluating my own practice. Each artifact I included in my portfolio contributed to my
overcoming this issue, and finally becoming confident in my abilities to reflect on and affect
change in my own teaching. Because I have become comfortable with this process, I can
continue to implement the further revisions that my stance on quality teaching will inevitably
require. After all, this stance on quality teaching was hugely important for me to craft, especially
after struggling through three years of teaching, but that stance is nowhere near all
encompassing, and it may never be. With that in mind, I now know I have the knowledge and
capacity to meet the goals and expectations I set for myself, however fluid those may be.