Throughout my time in the Master of Arts in Education program I have been introduced to a wide range of exciting and innovative ideas and I have been able to build upon previous ones. From foundational educational ideologies to leadership characteristics, from integrating educational technology to positively impacting youth through sport, these projects demonstrate the knowledge I have attained and the growth I have achieved. They exemplify what I believe to be the most important facets of 21st century educators - leading today, coaching the leaders of tomorrow, and learning always.
Leading Today
Educators are leaders. Of students, of other faculty, of the community - this role must be embraced to achieve positive impact. This principle underlies the notion of education as a profession.
School Leadership
Leading isn't always easy. This paper takes a fictional case study of a dysfunctional school and puts me in the principal's seat to identify ways to improve the school's culture. Framing one's leadership role, learning about team members, reinvigorating those who are flagging, identifying and empowering agents of positive change, embracing adaptive conflict, and resolving negative conflict - just a sample of the vital leadership skills needed in today's schools.
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Emergency Action Planning
When given the responsibility of overseeing youth, a coach or teacher has to be on their toes and has to do the right thing at all times. This case examined the actions of two physical education teachers who tried to do so but were not properly trained, did not have proper procedures in place, and made some unfortunate mistakes of their own. Evaluating this case gave me the opportunity to use my knowledge of safety standards, sports coaching, and emergency action planning to ensure that such an incident would not happen again.
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Coaching the Leaders of Tomorrow
Part of transformational leadership is developing one's followers. In and out of the classroom, on and off the field, knowledge is power. Students, parents, teachers - everybody starts somewhere and everybody needs a little help to reach their full potential.
Mathematics Technology Tools
There has never been more technology and information available to a wider range of people than there is today. So take advantage of it! I created this website offering reviews of a variety of tools for those looking for new and/or different ways to introduce, explore, and learn mathematics. Parents, teachers, and students can all benefit from the innovative activities assembled here.
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Transformational and Adaptive Leadership
I evaluated a number of the leaders in the book The Art of Command: Military Leadership from George Washington to Colin Powell by Harry Laver and Jeffrey Matthews for exhibits of transformational leadership as defined by Bruce Avolio and for adaptive leadership characteristics as defined by Ronald Heifetz. While military matters are often one of the ultimate crucibles of leadership, many of the lessons from military leaders can be applied elsewhere. This paper illustrates these characteristics in hopes of extrapolating ways they can be applied to everyday situations.
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Learning Always
Whether you know what you don't know, you don't know what you don't know, or you just want to know, learning shouldn't stop. An open mind and a drive to explore innovative or important ideas will always serve an educator well in the quest to continually improve. You know?
The Flipped Classroom
The most interesting concept that I researched during my time in this program was the idea of flipping the classroom. In its most basic form, flipping the classroom means presenting the classic lecture to students outside the classroom (through some other medium such as a video) and using scheduled class time for activities that would normally be done outside of class, such as homework and collaborative projects/learning experiences. Intriguing? Yes. Effective? Read more.
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Injury Prevention Research
Injury prevention has grown dramatically to be an important part of a holistic athlete conditioning program. I researched the effectiveness of various injury prevention programs in order to find ones that worked well for youth soccer players, then compiled a sample flyer that explains the important reasons coaches should implement an injury prevention program for their athletes along with a summary of the research results. This laid the foundation for my creation of a warm up sequence designed to assist youth soccer players in preventing injury.
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Coaching Behavior Analysis
In this project, I analyzed my coaching behavior during a practice session with one of my youth soccer teams using the popular Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS). Despite consistent efforts to not engage in any potentially negative interactions, the analysis showed that this practice was full of them. This was quite a shock but it has expanded my repertoire of positive behavioral interactions and clued me in to actions that may not appear negative, but can easily be construed by players as such, allowing me the opportunity to self-reflect and self-correct to improve my coaching.
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