Kelli Strange (Siebers)
Annotated Transcript
Fall 2013
On this page you will find a compilation of the courses I took while completing my Master of Arts in Education (MAED) degree at Michigan State University. Courses are listed in chronological order and are organized by semester. For each course you will find the course's title, instructor(s), and a brief description of how this course helped make me the educator I am today.
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TE = Teacher Education ED = Education CEP = Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education
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TE 802 Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practice I
Instructor: Dr. Lynne Watanabe
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Occurring simultaneously with my first semester of a year-long internship, this course allowed me to directly relate course concepts to my classroom experience. The primary project for this course was to identify an educational problem and use research-based knowledge to address the issue. I chose to create and implement a ten-day unit on phonological awareness where a variety of engagement strategies were utilized. After researching, designing, and implementing these lessons, data was collected and analyzed to assess the effectiveness of the teaching methods and strategies I used. Finally, this process helped me to realize the importance of reflecting on experiences as a part of learning and growing as an educator.
Spring 2014
​TE 803 Professional Roles and Teaching Practice II
Instructor: Gavin Sykes-Mclaughlin
This course focused on understanding students as individuals and how to meet their social, emotional, and educational needs. While exploring how to create a positive learning environment for my students, I created a social studies and literacy integrated unit on how to follow school expectations. These lessons were designed to improve students' ability to interact positively with each other and to understand that everyone has different emotional needs. These lessons helped boost student moral within our classroom and led to many more encouraging interactions between students throughout the school year.
​TE 804 Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practice II
Instructor: Andrea Varricchione
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As an extension of the concepts taught in TE 802, this course continued to focus on collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data. Based on kindergarten Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCEs) and the Inquiry Application Instruction Model of science teaching, I created a seven-day science unit exploring forces and motion. I taught each lesson multiple times by implementing this unit with each class in the grade level. This unique experience pushed me to analyze, reflect on and adjust my teaching, based on the different group and individual student needs.
Fall 2016
ED 800 Concepts of Educational Inquiry
Instructor: Dr. Steven Weiland
This self-paced course led me through the exploration of many different types of inquiry including; philosophical, psychological, biological, historical, biographical, autobiographical, and ethnographic. After learning about the concepts of inquiry in education, I was able to apply new knowledge of these concepts by engaging in each type of inquiry process myself. Through reading novels and watching a film, I learned about how education can affect peoples' lives in many different ways. Dr. Weiland's course gave me many opportunities to see other peoples' perspectives of education and how it affected their lives.
Spring 2017
CEP 832 Educating Students with Challenging Behavior
Instructor: Dr. Vicky Mousouli, Dr. Evelyn Oka
Through exploring different psychological and behavioral characteristics of children who exhibit challenging behaviors, I gained insight into how to work more effectively with these students. I learned about different research-based practices for effective instruction and classroom management for all students. Using this knowledge I was able to select a student displaying a challenging behavior and analyzed the motivation behind the behavior being displayed. With this information I selected, implemented, and analyzed an intervention plan that addressed and reduced the frequency of this behavior.
Summer 2017
CEP 883 Psychology of Classroom Discipline
Instructor: Dr. My Lien
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Through this course I learned more about the psychological principles behind student behaviors and how to use this information to create an optimal learning environment for my students. During this course I explored topics such as motivation, relationships, classroom environment, and positive behavior supports. I then put this knowledge into practice by developing a classroom management plan utilizing research-based best practices and psychological theories. This project will continue to serve as a working model in order to affectively manage my classrooms in the future.
TE 842 Elementary Reading Assessment and Instruction
Instructor: Dr. Laura Tortorelli
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The ability to accurately analyze data to inform instruction is key to supporting students' individual learning needs. In this course I learned about the characteristics of effective literacy-based assessments and how to more effectively use data to inform my instructional practices. I was also given opportunities to practice collecting, reading, and using data to plan instruction for a variety of students. During this course I also participated in a professional book club on All About Words to learn more about successfully teaching vocabulary to my students, especially those who are English Language Learners (ELLs).
Fall 2017
TE 845 Language Diversity and Literacy Instruction Assessment
Instructor: Dr. Patricia Edwards
Dr. Edward's course helped me gain a better understanding of how languages are acquired and how to use this knowledge to support English Language Learners (ELLs) in the classroom. Through a variety of texts I learned how to develop, evaluate, and carry-out instruction while supporting students' linguistic needs. I was then able to see many of these ideas in practice when I observed an experienced ELL teacher. Using this experience, I learned how to include instructional strategies for linguistically diverse students within my own classroom.
Spring 2018
TE 846 Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners
Instructor: Dr. Laura Tortorelli
Being able to use teaching methods that accommodate for needs of diverse learners involves studying the developmental processes, instructional practices, and assessment principles that enable student to read and write. For this course I conducted a literacy case study on a struggling literacy student in my own kindergarten classroom. This process began with using assessments to determine the specific area of needs for instruction and created two lessons addressing her needs. I then implemented and evaluated the effectiveness of these lessons based on post-assessment results.
Instructors: Dr. Matthew Koehler, Brittany Dillman, Spencer Greenhalgh, and Sarah Keenan-Lechel
This final course of the MAED program served as an opportunity to reflect upon my own learning experiences through the creation of a professional portfolio. Looking back, I was able to highlight my accomplishments as an educator and learner while also setting future goals for myself to continue my life-long educational journey. Using online participation techniques to interact with other capstone students allowed us to give and receive valuable feedback as a way to support each other in building effective portfolios.