Robert Millett's Professional Portfolio
When I began the Master of Arts in Education degree (MAED) through Michigan State University four years ago I had four years of experience teaching middle school math and my professional goals reflected the need for growth in pedagogical skills as well as integrating technology. I was just finishing my time at educational base camp and I had grown comfortable managing students and teaching mathematics. I was ready to embark upon my educational climb and look for pathways to improve and grow.
sub-goals at the beginning of the MAED was to better learn how to teach all students, not just the ones who have a desire to learn. I also wanted to learn more ways to make mathematics meaningful and interesting for my students. I wanted to learn new pedagogical skills and try them out in my classroom. I desired to learn more about the psychology behind motivation and learning as
well in order to be able to develop strategies in my classroom that were effective. I wanted to
learn more about technologies that existed that I could integrate into my teaching and the
students’ learning.
The Educational Climb
Growth and Improvement Without End
-Robert Millett
I stated that my meta-goal was “to become the best math teacher I can be.” This main goal has not changed and will never change, however some of the sub-goals to reaching this main goal have transformed or developed further. One of my
Four years later I still have the goal of continuing to find ways to make sure all students
are learning mathematics. The difference is that before my goal was more focused
around students learning my specific curriculum and being able to show their mastery of the skills,
but now when I talk about students learning mathematics I am more interested in my students learning how to think
mathematically and learning how to turn a situation or problem into mathematics and then using their logic and math
skills to find a reasonable solution to the problem. With this change in the focus of learning mathematics I am now
more concerned with presenting my students with authentic and meaningful problems that elicit the need and desire for
the thinking and learning of mathematics.
Connecting with this sub-goal is another sub-goal of integrating more technology into my lessons. This goal also remains fundamentally the same, however one small change has made a world of difference. Before, I wanted to learn about more technologies that could help me teach different topics, and I have learned about many of these over the course of my master’s program. However now my goal is to continue creating ways to repurpose technologies to enhance my lessons. Repurposing technology means to utilize creatively different technologies with teaching and learning that may otherwise not have been created for this purpose. This difference in the approach to using technology greatly widens the possibilities for integrating technology with my content and pedagogy.
also am identifying other important paths I need to explore in my quest for improvement. Two
new goals I now have are that I want to learn more about how to create and manage professional
learning communities and I want to learn more ways to collect and use data in order to inform
my teaching.
The day I feel that I can no longer improve as a teacher and have reached the summit will be the day I
need to stop teaching. I know through reflection and staying current on research I should always be
able to identify areas for improvement and new paths to explore. As long as my passion for teaching and
climbing keeps burning, I dedicate myself to being the best teacher I can be.
Four years ago I had trouble understanding why some students seemed to have no desire to learn mathematics. I wanted to learn more about what makes these students think and act the way they do. Now, through my studies of what motivates students, I have developed more compassion, understanding, and empathy for students so that rather than complaining about students that won’t try to learn the math, I am able to find the extra energy I need to search for ways to motivate them
to want to learn. Looking to the future, I always want to continue to improve as a teacher. However, the focus of what I need to improve changes from time to time. I will not forget how far I’ve traveled since base camp while looking for ways to make mathematics meaningful, understand my students better, and integrate technology. I continue along this path. However I