It was not until summer of 2017 that I decided to look into going back to school and in January of 2018, I began my journey toward a master’s degree in education at Michigan State University. When applying to the program and looking through the concentration areas, I was very intrigued by the technology and learning concentration and made the decision to focus my studies on technology as well as online learning. I have always been interested in technology in the classroom and loved to teach other teachers about technology when I was a teacher. Also, after three years of teaching in a traditional classroom, I taught online for one year. I had two overarching goals for this degree. The first being that I wanted to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to teach other teachers how to utilize technology and the second being to become a leader in the field of online teaching and learning. Although I still believe in the importance of technology and online learning, the changes I have made in my career caused me to change my goals.
When I was applying for the program, I was teaching online at the time and very interested in continuing to teach online in the future. While I still strive to be a leader and an expert in my field, I am no longer teaching online or in the classroom. As an online teacher, I really missed working with kids in person. Also, when I thought back on my favorite moments teaching, I noticed a theme throughout these moments. I truly enjoyed the time spent before school, during lunch and after school one on one with my students who needed a little extra attention. I did some more job research and I came across behavior therapy and Applied Behavior Analysis. After months of researching the field, reaching out to friends who had careers in that area, and a lot of thinking, I decided that this could possibly be the right career move for me.
Finally, I accepted a job working as a behavior therapist with children and adults of all ages who have autism. This new job has turned into a passion of mine and I quickly made the decision to change my concentration from technology to special education. In gaining this degree, it is my new goal to gain a supervisor role at my current job and then continue to learn, grow, study and eventually become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. I want to continue making an impact on children and family’s lives by using the knowledge I have gained during this program to be the best possible behavior therapist. It is also my goal to take the knowledge I gain from this program to grow and teach others as well. Although my goals changed throughout this program, I am a lifelong learner and it is always my goal to learn and grow in my profession.