Running head: FINDING MRS.

STRACHAN

Finding Mrs. Strachan: My Search for Professional Identity

MATC Synthesis Paper

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Master of Arts Degree in Curriculum and Teaching
Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University

Abigail V. Strachan
August 7, 2015

FINDING MRS. STRACHAN

Introduction
I proudly walked across the elevated stage on the floor of Michigan State Universitys
Breslin Center to receive my undergraduate diploma, relieved and blissful. I had achieved a lifelong dream. All of my hard work had paid off. I was on the cusp of accomplishing my career
goal, becoming a teacher. When I thought about it, the daunting adventure of beginning student
teaching brought up contradicting feelings. I felt excited and nervous, ready and unprepared, sure
of myself and doubtful. I had prepared for four years and felt fairly competent, yet still did not
know what was to come. I would be embarking on my career, finally learning the real tricks of
the trade. I knew some things could not be learned until I was immersed in the experience. I did
not know those things included learning about myself. I would soon discover that to be a teacher,
I had to grow into a self-assured leader and problem solver.
When I began teaching after graduation, I had a few unwritten goals: 1) to create a
classroom home, where students felt safe, respected, valued, and loved learning, 2) to teach to
the individual, using strategies I believed in, 3) to feel comfortable, competent, and excited about
teaching every day, and 4) to continue seeking knowledge and growing into a better teacher,
colleague, and member of the community. My goals aligned perfectly with two MATC goals,
accomplished teaching (Goal 2), and collaborative professional development, teacher leadership,
and contributions to the field (Goal 3). However, at the beginning of my teaching journey, I
would come to realize that the first MATC goal, critical inquiry, was an important key in my
development as a teacher. In order to complete the MATC program, I would need to achieve
more than the goals I set for myself.

FINDING MRS. STRACHAN

Teacher as Problem Solver

As a college student, I always felt like an uncertain assistant when I was placed in a
classroom. Internal conflicts with classroom authority and feelings of discomfort with the
classroom environment plagued almost every pre-service teaching placement I had. Unsure of
the rules and my position to enforce them, I had to rely on others to help me solve problems.
Even if I was teaching lessons, I never felt like I truly had authority. Part of this was the nature of
field experience, but part of it was my personality. I was excellent at following directions and
completing given tasks, but it was much harder for me to take initiative. Since I had not created
the classroom community, I felt like I had to live within it and abide by the rules whether I liked
it or not.
This internal conflict became very difficult on my study abroad trip to Cape Town, South
Africa, when I was placed in a first grade classroom with 38 economically disadvantaged
students, many with severe behavior problems. This classroom was much different than what I
was used to. Lessons in this room consisted of students working independently on packets of
stapled math or phonics worksheets, repeated whole group readings, and an occasional read
aloud. The teacher I worked with managed her students behavior with physical punishment,
namely, a long, hollow plastic stick. If the stick was too far away, she used other close objects
such as books or keys to hit her students.
This fear-based classroom environment was the exact opposite of my ideal classroom. I
was in a classroom environment that I hated and the students feared. Upon return to the United
States, I began the process of critical inquiry for my TE 815 final project. I wrote a comparative
analysis of education in South Africa and the U. S., focusing especially on the issue that so
disturbed me: corporal punishment. Within the paper, I compared classrooms in the two different

FINDING MRS. STRACHAN

contexts and built a critique supported with research (Artifact 1: Comparative Analysis of
Classroom Discipline). The process allowed me to reflect on the happenings in South Africa,
inquire into my own beliefs, and gave me the opportunity to look at corporal punishment from
the opposite perspective. Although I was not able to solve the management problem I witnessed
or gain valuable management strategies to use in my own classroom, TE 815 introduced me to a
strategy that I could apply to my own teachingcritical inquiry.
While student teaching, I was required to put my critical inquiry skills to the test in TE
804. Instead of analyzing a problem I could not solve, I had to reflect on my practice, identify a
problem I noticed, and attempt to solve it to improve student learning in science. Together with
my mentor, I came up with new management techniques to control blurting and speed up
transitions. I chose to target classroom management because I knew it would improve student
learning in all subjects, not just science. I implemented the changes and studied the effects in an
inquiry report (Artifact 4: Inquiry Report: Classroom Management). The results of the report
showed the techniques were not extraordinarily successful, due to the many factors involved in
class behavior. However, the fact that I made the changes was significant. I was becoming a
problem solver through the use of critical inquiry. In addition, I was using that problem solving
to build a community that embraced all of my students.

Teacher as Classroom Community Leader

Now that I had activated my problem solving skills through critical inquiry, I decided to
use them to work on my personal goals. In the classroom, much of my problem solving became
focused on building community, a key component of three of my goals and one of the MATC
goals, accomplished teaching. One of the most successful ways to build community was by

FINDING MRS. STRACHAN

forming positive, productive relationships with my students during Lunch Bunch (Artifact 7:
Lunch Bunch Invitation). For Lunch Bunch, I invited about four students to have lunch with me
in the classroom. In these small groups, I got to know my students as individuals, and they
learned about each other as well. I tried to choose students that were not close friends because I
wanted to build a whole classroom community where all students were respected, regardless of
their differences. This meant helping everyone to get to know more than just their usual friends.
I soon discovered that building community and differentiating student learning went
hand-in-hand. As a teacher aspiring to be a classroom leader, I knew that I had to look at
individual strengths to make each child successful. Creating unit plans gave me the chance to do
that. Deciding what students were going to learn, how they were going to learn it, and planning
the details gave me the power to give the entire classroom community the opportunity for
meaningful learning. It made teaching exciting because I was eager to see how my students
would react to the lessons I carefully planned for them. One of my favorite units I created was
the very first unit, a series of lessons on visualizing based on Debbie Millers Reading With
Meaning (Artifact 2: Visualizing Unit). I loved teaching my students how to make mental images
when reading or listening to reading. In turn, they enjoyed the different methods used to show
their understanding, such as drawing or explaining their thinking. For my class, which had many
English Language Learners (ELLs), this was a unit in which everyone could feel confident
participating, regardless of language ability. We talked quite a bit about schema and how
everyones drawings were different because everyone had different experiences and a different
brain.
I wrote about the results of this unit in a professional writing piece (Artifact 3:
Professional Writing: ELL Literacy Learning). This purpose of the article was to share my

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experience teaching visualizing to my ELLs with other educators in a professional setting, such
as a teaching journal. The article included my successes within the unit as well as improvements
I could make in the future. Reflecting in this new way helped me practice the critical inquiry
skills I had begun to develop after visiting South Africa. Evaluating the assessments in my unit
helped me document my students needs, understanding, and progress. Building the unit also
helped me expand my skills and grow as an accomplished teacher. I had found ways in my unit
to teach to the strengths of my diverse learners and was able to document the effects in a
professional writing piece I could share with other teachers.
As I remained dedicated to individual instruction and building community, I began to
experience accomplished teaching, the second MATC goal. In my first summer school class, I
taught a group of 17 kindergarten through second grade ELLs. Although my students were all
different ages and abilities, we spent time as a whole class each day during calendar and read
aloud to build community. Students worked in mixed age table groups and partner pairs. We all
followed the same rules and expectations, which I determined.
In order to teach subject matter to this group of students, I had to plan two or three
lessons for each subject area: reading, writing, and math (Artifact 5: Lesson Plan). Most of the
reading and writing lessons combined first and second grades, but math was usually separated
for each grade level. I tried to individualize instruction as much as I could for my students so
they could be successful. For some students, this meant fluidity between groups, depending on
their ability level. I taught confidently, instructing to my students needs and interests. I even
organized and planned for my classroom helpers so they could aid student learning as well. I
began to feel, for the first time, like I was developing the identity of a self-assured leader. I had

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the ability to successfully lead a classroom and create a community that increased student
learning.

Teacher as Problem Solver & Leader

In order to fully accomplish the MATC goals and standards, I had to use my burgeoning
problem solving skills and self-assured leadership skills and combine them in the classroom to
tackle differentiated instruction and community building. One of the first problems I decided to
solve was the lack of reading motivation in the classroom. While teaching summer school to a
group of eight second graders, I noticed my struggling readers had trouble reading for extended
periods of time. In addition, they rarely turned in reading logs, regardless of the incentive.
Thinking back, I realized that many of the students I taught in previous schools had the same
habits. Inspired by the class I was taking at the time, TE 807, I decided to solve this chronic
problem. In my designers portfolio, I identified the reading problem in my classroom (Artifact
6: Designers Portfolio: Reading Engagement). I conducted research, using academic articles and
student surveys, then created lists of possible ways to solve the problem. The lists included
changes I could make to my classroom and future classrooms to improve reading, as well as
ways to test the effectiveness of the changes.
In TE 846, I studied another chronic classroom issuethe achievement gap. In every
class I have taught, there has been a wide range of abilities between groups of students. It has
always been a challenge figuring out the strategies to help low students catch up to the standards
set for them. Last summer, after the school year, I continued working with one of my low
readers. Through a literacy learner analysis, I targeted and assessed specific skills my student
needed, analyzed the results, and reflected on the process (Artifact 8: Literacy Learner Analysis).

FINDING MRS. STRACHAN

This research and reflection made me reexamine this students needs, my reading instruction, and
our reading curriculum. I was able to find and use progress monitoring resources that were
beneficial for the project and for supplementing small reading groups for years to come. I was
finally able to fully utilize my problem solving skills to improve learning for each child in the
classroom community.

Teacher as Learner
All of my experiences during my time in the MATC have helped me work toward
achieving my personal goals and MATC goals and standards, yet there is always room for
improvement. I have just started working on MATC Goal 3, collaborative professional
development, teacher leadership, and contributions to the field. As a result of a yearlong
professional development I took this past year, I have many ideas for writing workshop (Artifact
9: WOW Certification). This workshop allowed me to learn with teachers from other districts to
support best writing practice in classrooms. After attending an ED Camp this summer, I also
have a new character building idea to try in the classroom, based on Lane and Mestdaghs Force
Field for Good. I want my students to appreciate the values of our classroom beyond the doors of
second grade. I know that if I use these strategies I believe in, my excitement and love will be
infectious, and all students will have better opportunities to learn.
In the future, I want to pursue more opportunities for professional development within
teaching communities to help build my practice. I know that as I continue to seek knowledge, I
will grow into a better teacher, and will find ways to teach to the individual. As a lifelong learner,
this means that I will never be able to check off goals on my list like I did with graduation. The
many goals I hold are perpetual. They push me to be better, to never settle, and to keep looking

FINDING MRS. STRACHAN

for ways I can improve. They have pushed me to define myself and build the foundation of my
professional identity.

Conclusion
Through my MATC journey, I have become a skilled teacher. My classrooms have never
been perfect, but I have developed the leadership skills, problem solving abilities, and confidence
to create a classroom community. I have the ability to reflect on my practice, look at problems
from different perspectives, and can use action research and assessment to help understand my
students. I can create a classroom home, where students feel safe, respected, valued, and love
learning. I am committed to teaching to my students diverse strengths, and strive to use
strategies I believe in and improve areas of practice. Although I am just beginning, I am ready to
continually engage in collaborative professional development and provide teacher leadership. I
feel comfortable, competent, and am excited about teaching.
Always striving for the same goals can be intimidating. However, when I feel doubtful, I
know I can look inward to find strength. My teaching and MATC adventure has been difficult
and at times, disheartening. But through that struggle, I achieved more than I anticipated and I
found more than I expected. I found the experience and drive to succeed within myself. Mrs.
Strachan is a learner, a problem solver, and a self-assured leader. She can make a difference in
the lives of her students. I have seen her do it before, and I know I will see her do it again.

FINDING MRS. STRACHAN

10

References
Lane, B., & Mestdagh, C. (2014). Force Field for Good: Teaching Kindness through Song and
Literature. Discover Writing: www.discoverwriting.com
Miller, D. (2002). Reading with Meaning. Portland: Stenhouse