Leah Segrin's Professional Portfolio

Where Do You Want To Go?

By Leah Segrin

February 2013

 





            In his book, Oh, The Places You Will Go!, Dr. Suess sent the message to us all, “You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” It wasn’t always easy, for I faced challenges and doubts, but throughout my life, I have to chosen to “steer” myself in the direction of my passions, my dreams.

          I applied to Michigan State University’s Master of Arts in Education Online degree in May 2011 with two main objectives. I wanted to increase my knowledge and understanding for what constitutes quality education and I wanted to work towards that goal in a flexible learning environment that an online format offered.

          A requirement for entrance into the MAED program was to write a professional goal statement. I remember thinking deeply about the reasons I was pursuing a Masters degree in education. I examined my values and my own personal philosophy, in search of the words that would properly describe my aspirations. I even reflected on why I had chosen Literacy in Education and P-12 School and Postsecondary Leadership as the concentrations of my graduate study.
          I believe I have purpose as a leader, based on the formal and informal leadership experiences I continually found myself in. I wanted to nurture that responsibility, which is why I chose a Leadership concentration. I felt it was important to learn effective methods of leadership so I could consciously implement research-based best practices into my professional leadership roles. I chose Literacy as the other concentration of my Master’s study because of the interdisciplinary involvement of language arts. The acts of speaking, listening, reading, and writing are intertwined in the learning and teaching of all subjects. For this reason, choosing Literacy as a degree focus seemed very logical to me. Time with these two concentrations and practice in using communication technologies, has pointed out to me reoccurring themes of effective education. I have grown increasingly passionate about student-based culturally relevant learning, parental involvement, and technology integration and these are the themes from which my new goals have emerged. 
          Reflecting back on my professional goal statement, my goals and motives for beginning this journey seem broad and a bit cumbersome. I had proclaimed I wanted to live a life of “energizing my students and motivating them to learn”; and declared, I wanted to, “make a difference in people’s lives by leading them in an effective way towards their own personal accomplishments.”  Those life-long goals have not changed. I still want to serve others in education and find ways to make learning enjoyable for the individual- a dream I’m sure the majority of today’s teachers share with me and throughout history have shared. The difference for me now is, I have learned how to set new, more specific goals for myself- goals that involve my unique set of skills. I felt it was not enough to just want to make a difference. I learned to ask myself critical questions like “how can I improve?” and “how can I cultivate motivation in the individual learner?”, all while keeping in mind my dream of making a positive difference in people’s lives.
          I plan to take what I have learned from the coursework of this program, my peers and professors, and my personal reflection, and implement it into my current and future teacher/leader opportunities. I think the insight I gained in this program has been invaluable, for it is information I can also use to raise my own children someday. I have already been able to share learning strategies and awareness of new technologies with my family and friends. I’ve have experienced the benefits of learning with a variety of technological tools and I plan to incorporate technology into my daily practice. I hope to soon start a classroom blog detailing daily student activity. I feel it will be effective in involving parents in on their child’s learning and it will fulfill another resolution of mine- to write more often. I also look forward to creating more websites and online portfolios. This capstone has really built up my confidence in my web-publishing ability
          I agree with Dr. Seuss that we can direct where we go on our life journey. We all have the ability to achieve greatness. I am dedicated in sharing this news with others and I will be diligent in helping others discover what it is they can be great at doing. I am better equipped now with literacy tools and strategies to help others navigate their own path of discovery and I have nurtured my ability to lead others in their own efforts of improvement. But I know, I am not finished learning. There is always more to learn, more improvement to be made, and more places to go.