My term reflection

The first term in MEd

This first term in the Tech Ed Masters program really was a tale of two Zach’s. Early in September through October, I was strongly reconsidering even being in this program. I had thoroughly and completely underestimated the mental resources this program required and could feel myself burning out. Time was never an issue. The problem was how drained I felt after a full day of teaching and if I would have any juice left to explore educational technology. In many ways, I was guilty that I didn’t have enough energy to adequately share with my peers and absorb their perspectives.

Thankfully, that all turned around for me in November. My attitude shifted, my mental resources reallocated, and I felt more at home with my cohort. For this new lease on life, I can readily identify the two biggest factors: (a) working smarter, not harder, and (b) seeing how the rest of my cohort is approaching the program.

In many ways this term, I have embodied the probably 1000-year-old saying “work harder, not smarter” (Morgenstern, 1930)¹. To make the best use of my available mental resources, I reserved an hour each weekday (from 6 to 7am) to work on my MEd projects and assignments so I could approach them fresh. Then my high school teaching job takes its pound of flesh and the MEd gets whatever scraps² are left after that. Another invaluable tool for working smarter is Zotero. Since I’m only able to find an hour here and there, I’ve been using Zotero to read, highlight, and pick up exactly where I left off last time – wherever that was.

As for my commiseration with my cohort and experiencing their mental states firsthand, I can only offer the picture below. While we deeply appreciate the learning opportunities afforded to us by the many experts involved in the Tech Ed program, it is also important to recognize the mental and emotional toll a Graduate program can take when experienced alongside a full-time teaching job. Rest assured though, we are doing fine!

¹ I refuse to believe that the saying “work smarter, not harder” was first uttered in the 1930’s. There must be some ancient proverb or Petroglyph somewhere that captures the sentiment of that statement.

² Everything written before this footnote was done at 6 am before a busy school day. Everything after it was typed hastily after a long day of herding cats and wrangling monkeys. Perhaps that will be evident as you read on.

Lessons learned about ePortfolios

As a new teacher, I had only a basic understanding of what ePortfolios were, let alone how they could be used. Many of our students see technology as something else they have to learn rather than a way to supplement and enhance learning. I’m embarrassed to say that I had the same attitude toward ePortfolios; a fun and trendy method that would be more work than it was worth to set up and moderate. How wrong I was!

My biggest takeaway from our project on ePortfolios was their educational versatility. They provide students a platform to express what they’ve learned in many different ways. We (educators) can lay out our learning outcomes, broadly define the constraints for what is posted, and evaluate where students are using evidence of their engagement and understanding. We can use them to supplement our course assessment and measure hard-to-capture factors like collaboration.

Plans and hopes for the future

As this post grows in length, I will capture my hopes for the future in M.Ed in one word: excitement. As I dive deeper into my research project, I can feel my personal interest merging with an academic avenue with papers, articles, and web pages. In a way, I’ve been able to let go of what I thought this program would be and am beginning to define my own purpose within it. A new lease on research!

A special thanks to Igor Omilaev for creating photos that perfectly capture my feelings towards my first term of graduate studies. You can find him here.