How One Little Boy Changed It All
Goal Reflection
Amber Turner
My son, Brady and our new baby still growing.
I submitted my application into Michigan State University’s MAED online program back in February of 2009. I had put off starting my masters degree as my husband and I were trying to start a family and I did not want to do both at the same time. In January of 2009 the family plan was not pulling together like we hoped and I decided that I should start my masters since it looked like we had a long road ahead of us before we would have our family. I figured I would have my masters complete before we ever had a family.
The goals I had when starting the program were to become a literacy advocate for my school and possibly pursue a job with the local ISD as a literacy consultant. As much as I loved teaching in my classroom the thought of working more with adults and not in one place every day really appealed to me. I wanted to take what I learned though my masters and share it with others so that they could improve their literacy instruction and thought a job with the ISD would be perfect. In the back of my mind I was also thinking that some day I may want to be in adminstration but I saw that further down the road. That is how I came up with my major of literacy and school leadership.
Today I no longer want to work for the ISD or become an adminstrator, or at least not for many years. You see the month after I was accepted to the masters program my husband and I found out we were expecting our son, Brady. We were shocked since just two months before we were told how unlikely this was to happen. Today as I type this we are expecting our second child any day and we are both in awe at how becoming a parent changes a person.
While at one point I wanted nothing more than to get out of the classroom and expand to other schools I no longer want that. Today I have no interest in leaving my classroom. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first being I teach at the school where my children will go. Staying put means I get to watch them in their education from an inside view from preschool to the day they graduate. I love that I will be there every day for their accomplishments, their failures and just day to day life. The second reason I do not want to work for the ISD is because becoming a parent has made me want to be a better teacher. I want to be the type of teacher I want my children to have. I want to provide children with a wonderful educational experience in hopes that someday someone will do the same for my children. I want to be the change so greatly needed in education not only for my students but for my children.