Kami Almy

As my time as a student in the Master’s program is drawing to a close I am reminded that every story has an end but in life every ending is just a new beginning. Here is a short story about how I got to where I am today. I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. Growing up I would play school with my best friend while we babysat our cousins and the neighborhood kids. When I was in eighth grade I became a teacher’s assistant for a sixth grade teacher. I helped the teacher grade papers and I got to work with students during class with various tasks. I liked helping the sixth graders but I was not sure the job was for me. Also during my eighth grade year, we were required to do a job shadow and of course I picked a teacher to spend the day with. Mrs. Ward was my first grade teacher and she agreed to allow me to spend the day helping out in her classroom. I got to grade papers and help students with their work. I knew then I wanted to teach Elementary students. I had so much fun but little did I know that teaching could be so challenging. As I entered high school I got more involved with younger kids. I became a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) role model and took part in Big Brother Big Sister. Upon graduation I chose to go to  Western Michigan University for my Undergrad.

 

While in Kalamazoo I tutored students and spent my free time volunteering in classrooms. My love for teaching grew stronger. In my final year at WMU I participated in the Urban Program doing my internship in an Urban School right in Kalamazoo. I was placed in a Kindergarten classroom where I knew I found what I was meant to do for the rest of my life, teaching. There were several challenging students that I bonded with and helped them get through their first year of school. The feeling I got when I watched them catch on to what I was teaching them was one I never wanted to go away. After graduation I accepted a position as a paraprofessional in the PEEP preschool classroom at Edison where I did my internship. I worked with students one on one or in small groups most of the time. However, when the teacher was absent I became the lead teacher and I learned there that I wanted to teach pre-K more than anything. Unfortunately that position didn’t last long and I was back to being a substitute teacher and the students became more challenging. In fall of 2010 I accepted a position in Hastings teaching Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP). I was in love with my job. Again I found that I had students who had needs that I could not meet. I tried getting help with these challenging students but it took months. In the fall of 2011 I moved from GSRP in Hastings to GSRP in Lansing, where I am now. After teaching for three years I decided it was time for me to get my masters and I knew exactly what I needed to do.

 

In fall of 2013 I applied to Michigan State University to take part in the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) online program with a concentration in Special Education. I knew that every year I was going to get those challenging students and every year I ask for support and it’s either not enough or not fast enough. I decided in order for me to be the best teacher that I can be for my students I needed to further my education and specialize in courses that will help me meet their needs. My plan was to understand the different challenging behaviors and disabilities my students were exhibiting. Working full time and going to school full time worried me and I was unsure if I was going to be able to handle it. I had taken a couple online courses at WMU but I was on campus and could go see my professors whenever I needed to. I was worried about doing the online program but I knew sitting in class was not an option for me I am too involved in my school, my community and my family. However, I wanted to learn the latest techniques and teaching strategies to help my students become successful so that was just what I did.

 

My first semester in the MAED program I took three courses while I watched my two nephews on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This left me with Monday, Wednesday and Friday to go to the MSU library with my sister, who worked there. I knew it was going to take dedication so if I rode with her I couldn’t leave until my work was done or her shift was over. This was so helpful but I also found that it didn’t seem like work I really enjoyed my courses. One of my favorite courses was Psychology Classroom Discipline CEP 883. While taking this course I was given the opportunity to reflect on my classroom management a lot. This course required me to recognize my own ethnocentrism and biases, my knowledge of students’ cultural backgrounds, my understanding of the broader social, economic, and political context of our education systems, the ability and willingness to use culturally appropriate classroom management strategies, and commitment to building caring classroom communities. Through readings and projects I was able to develop a culturally responsive classroom management system that I could use in our classroom. Being part of GSRP we are not able to do things like give rewards or a lot of teacher directed activities but I was able to pull out information and strategies that would help me in my classroom. One strategy that I have found really useful is a reflection journal. Often we deal with day to day behavior and sometimes miss the pattern that the student is exhibiting and what it is telling us. With a reflection journal you make and take the time to remember all the events and document them. This helps compare yesterday from today or today from five weeks ago when you first started a new intervention. I am glad I took this course now as my school is moving into Culturally Responsive Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (CRPBIS) and Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation, and Successful students (CHAMPS) both a big part of this course.

 

II also took Classroom Management in the Inclusive Classroom CEP 841 my first semester. This course gave me the opportunity to review my current beliefs of students and classroom management and develop goals on where I wanted my classroom to go. It taught me the importance of being a leader in my classroom as well as what types of roles I needed to fill. I was initially introduced to Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, Functional Behavioral Assessment and Behavior Intervention Plans during this course all of which are becoming a bigger part of my current teaching position. It is so beneficial for me to have background information that I can share with my colleagues and help support them. This is crucial to me because I am young and often overlooked by these teachers who have been teaching longer than I have been alive. This course helped me find a voice in my school. I then was able to develop interventions and strategies for classroom management and behavioral intervention. I also learned to think critically about instructional accommodations as lesson plans are developed and to meet the diverse learning, behavior, and social needs of my students. I changed the way I was observing my students. I started taking note of not just their positive interactions but their negative ones too. This course also helped me develop an understanding for management as a prevention and discipline. Using the skills I acquired and the strategies I have learned I am able to create an environment where I am able to prevent most disruptive behaviors from occurring in the first place but also, have a plan for the moments when disruptive behaviors do occur.

 

In fall 2014 I took the course Autism Spectrum Disorders: ​Characteristics and Educational Implications​​ CEP 843. Although none of my students have ever came into my classroom with a diagnosis with this being their first year in a school setting there are several that we have had screened to see if they qualified. I chose to take this course to help me understand what my students and their families might go through when the student is diagnosed with ASD. I also wanted to learn how to set up an effective learning environment for these children and assist their families. This course did just that. It became a real eye open to the struggles students and their families face. I was able to learn a variety of strategies to help teach a child with ASD and similar disorders. I learned that each child who is diagnosed with ASD is different and it is crucial to get to know each student on an individual basis to create an effective learning environment for them. During this course I was able to create a case study around a child in my classroom who was diagnosed with ASD. I was able to seek assistance from the special education teacher in my building as well which helped me learn more about what assistance is available for my students.

 

During the spring of 2014 I took the course Educating Students with Challenging Behaviors CEP 832. This course could not have come at a better time. I was currently struggling with working with five students with some of the most challenging behavior I had ever seen in pre-K. They would often feed off of each other and this made my days very difficult. Through this course I received a deeper understanding on how to educate students with challenging behaviors. The text focused on different challenging behaviors which we discussed in our work. It was refreshing to be able to learn how to deal with the behaviors I was currently dealing with in my classroom through techniques geared toward those students. This course helped me get a better understanding of the common challenging behaviors and how to deal with them in my classroom. What I also enjoyed about this course was that it was not only about the disruptive behaviors but it taught me how to deal with the shy, isolated and withdrawn students which I had several of those as well. I learned how important it was to truly get to know those students and to help them find ways to express themselves. Often these students are forgotten because they are not causing trouble to the classroom however these can be the ones that fall in the cracks and don’t receive all the help that they need and deserve. I wanted to make sure I was able to reach them as well and this course helped me do just that.

 

I have found now that the most important course I took during my time at MSU is the Capstone Seminar ED 870. The capstone seminar is how we wrapped up our Master of Arts in Education program. The seminar helped me look back at my graduate journey and see what I have learned, what I want to worked on, and where I plan to go from here. I was required to write an essay about my goals as a future learner and also reflect on what my goals were heading into this program and if they are still the same. The seminar allowed me to see how far I have come and the knowledge I acquired along the way. This seminar has helped me create a toolbox of some of the important information I have learned throughout my Masters degree. Through all of the courses I have taken I was taught important strategies and techniques for assisting children with special needs and challenging behaviors but I also learned to be a better team player when it comes to collaboration and sharing my ideas with others. I think that some of the most beneficial things I got out of this program are better collaboration skills and a tool box of techniques for dealing with challenging students whether they have a disability or not. I was able to create a website as part of the requirements of my capstone which will help me show parents the importance of our program and my journey as a lifelong learner. The capstone helped me put all of this in one space so I can look back at it, use it as a reference for my future, and add to it as I continue on my journey as a lifelong learner!