My Quest

In the spirit of TJEd's 'Inspire Not Require' and 'You, Not Them', I've written an essay for my English 121 students at Ashford University following the same criteria they do for their first assignments (draft and final). This doesn't totally follow the APA formatting because it's a blog! But it's close. They have another draft and final essay later, but they're changing the course after this class, so I simply won't be that inspiring. =/

Enjoy!

~vbb

                    

My Masters Quest

Verena Beckstrand

Instructor

October 29, 2012

Over fifteen years ago I began pondering what I would do after I graduated from BYU in Humanities the next summer. I felt hungry to keep learning, but in a way that I could use to serve other people. Digging around the BYU Masters of Instructional Science caught my eye and by the fall of 1996 I was enrolled in the program. Just over a year later I was a newlywed and pregnant with my first child. Despite all of my efforts, I had to abandon the program. Ten years later I applied to the Masters of Education program at GWU in Cedar City. This time I never had the money to even start. I still really want to get a Masters of Education, but I must wait until I find the right program to fit my particular needs and interests in regards to Education, for the right time because I want to make sure I have done everything I can to prepare myself to make the most of my Masters program, and I need to have enough money and time to pay for tuition and complete the course work.

I love learning. I can’t remember a time when I haven’t looked at my teachers, whether they be school teachers, church teachers, seminar teachers or what have you, with a critical eye. Furthermore, I love to look outside the ‘box’ for solutions to learning experiences. I love my 5^th grade teacher who pinned a dead fly to the ceiling for my classmate, who was forever dreamily looking at the ceiling, could have something to look at. My older sister started home schooling her children when I was in my early teens, and I have never looked back. I love having my children home with me, and I love teaching them; though admittedly I also love learning about learning through them almost as much as I love watching them learn. I must wait until I find a program that will help me learn about learning without all the requirements that a ‘box’ puts on learning.

I am constantly learning about education. I have the list of books from the GWU Masters of Education classes. I have read some of them, and I want to read more. I follow several blogs about education. Seth Godin has a lot of great things to say on his blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ . I also enjoy reading The Innovative Educator blog at http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com, and the Thomas Jefferson Education blog at http://www.tjed.org among several others. While in China I thought a lot about learning a language. I wrote down my thoughts and feelings not only while learning Chinese, which I knew almost nothing of before we went there, but also while teaching English to some children there. I am also pondering and researching my own theories of learning in a book I hope to write some day. So often I wish I could already have my Masters done. Sometimes I think that all of things I’m learning about education and all of the ideas I’m working on concerning learning would be easier if I already had my Masters of Education. But even though I hate waiting to have or even start my Masters of Education, I know that I will be better prepared to make the most of the opportunity when it does come.

The most frustrating and even boring reasons I have for not working on my Masters of Education is money and time. The economy has hit us about as hard as anyone in the past few years. We simply have too many basic necessities that we aren’t meeting for me to even consider adding tuition to the list of bills to pay. I really will hate sacrificing time with my family. Still, wouldn’t I be a much better home school mom if I already had my Masters? (NOT that I think every home school mom even needs any educational training. I think WAY too far out of the box for me to believe that a requirement.) I hope that I will not have to wait until all of my kids are raised and gone before I can get my Masters degree.

So I wait. I wait and I study and I serve my children as their partner in learning in the best way I know how. I know that someday I will find the right program to fit my particular needs and interests in regards to Education. Someday I will have done everything I can to prepare myself to make the most of my Masters program, and someday I really will have enough money and time to pay for tuition and complete the course work. After all, as my BYU Professor, the late Dr. Dillon Inouye said, “What is God, if he's not an Instructional Designer?”

"Worst Case Scenario . . ."

'Worst Case Scenario' is really a misnomer.

If we believe in the goodness of God, then we should consider any worst case scenario as really only another Great scenario.

The Greatness of a 'worst case scenario' is simply so different from that of a best case scenario, however, that . . . well, it's just too Great for our understanding until we've actually experienced it!

Great . . . ;)

~vbb

P.S. Before anyone asks, I'm not experiencing, nor my family either, any unusual 'worst case scenarios'. This just sprang from my own naturally random thoughts.

Real Teaching & Real Learning

I’m passionate about education, and I’m passionate about teaching. I’m passionate because I love learning, and I love teaching. Sometimes I’m even good at learning. I hate it too though. And very often I’m pretty miserable at both. But the world needs great learning and great teaching. So I must tenaciously seek to fulfill my mission in regards to education and learning. In the process I’m grateful for God’s servants to help us understand His Truth in regards to Teaching and Learning. In the October, 2011 LDS General Conference Matthew O. Richardson gave a talk entitled, Teaching after the Manner of the Spirit. The following quotes are from this talk:

 I have learned that a key to becoming real in every aspect of our lives is our ability to teach in a way that does not restrict learning. You see, a real life requires real learning, which depends on real teaching.

In another post, I admitted that I hate teaching, mostly because I’m overly sensitive to anything that even remotely smacks of non-real teaching. Overly. Enough that I simply walk away from such teaching when I should find a way to help the world have more real teaching and more real learning.

While we are all teachers, we must fully realize that it is the Holy Ghost who is the real teacher and witness of all truth. . . . As we align our manner with the Holy Ghost’s manner, then the Holy Ghost can teach and testify without restraint.

This is both frustrating and comforting. Frustrating in that we over shoot the mark with our teaching so often. Comforting to know that all we have to do is lead the horse to the water. Then we just let the Spirit do the rest.

The Holy Ghost teaches individuals in a very personal way. This makes it possible for us to intimately know truth for ourselves. . . . . Those who teach after the manner of the Spirit understand they teach people, not lessons.

What is the implication of this idea of teaching people not lessons? How do we apply that? I love this question too much to even attempt to answer it here.

The Holy Ghost teaches by inviting, prompting, encouraging, and inspiring us to act.  . . . . You see, the Holy Ghost cannot learn for us, feel for us, or act for us because this would be contrary to the doctrine of agency. He can facilitate opportunities and invite us to learn, feel, and act. . . . . Parents who mirror the workings of the Holy Ghost create homes where families learn to value rather than just learn about values. In like manner, rather than just talking about doctrines, teachers help learners understand and live gospel doctrines. The Holy Ghost is unrestrained as individuals exercise their agency appropriately.

One of the things I hate about teaching are the things teachers ask us to do. What kinds of things does the Holy Ghost invite us to do? What kinds of things do the Holy Ghost not invite us to do? Again, I hesitate to answer that really great questions. I’m pretty sure, however, that the Holy Ghost did not inspire the study guides required in my 5^th grade Social Studies class, even though I really did like my teacher, Dr Darden.

So my tenacious passion for Real Teaching must be about inviting the Holy Ghost to teach so that the Learner can act. How does the Teacher do that? What does the Teacher do?

I love great questions!!!

~vbb