Ohhhh, We're Half Way There..

I just finished the work on Educational Research Class. This means I am more than half-way done with my degree! I am working on my MEd in Elementary Reading and Literacy through Walden University. It is a fairly easy program, as I only take one class at a time. It is all done online and there is virtually no group work. I really didn't have an interest in pursuing a degree in reading, as I have no plans to become a reading specialist or anything, but I did need to select a Master's program so I could move up a pay scale. What bothers me now that I'm more than half way finished with this degree is I received an e-mail from Walden detailing a new Master's program in Early Childhood Education! What?! That was my undergrad major, and I definitely would have signed up for that had it been available. I feel like that program would have been more beneficial and relevant to my teaching. But it also could have just been a repeat of my 4 years in college, and I might not have learned anything.

So in what I am doing through the Reading program is writing lesson plans for primary and elementary grades, developing a mission for teaching, and delving in to the world of educational research. This last course I thought I would have a heart attack. What do you mean I need to develop a research question and have to find 7 primary resources, analyze them, and tie them together to answer my research question? In the end, it was actually pretty stress-free. I came up with my research question pretty quickly, found many sources, and received very good feedback from my professor. The best part, though, is receiving a 0% similarity report on my rationale. OK, it was only 3 paragraphs stating why my paper met the standard, but I have never seen a 0%! If you are taking online classes, you may be familiar with Turnitin.com. It is site where you upload your paper, and they check for plagiarism. It also check to see if there is similar wording in the paper, which generally happens because everyone in your course is submitting basically the same thing. I usually get 8-15% which is 'green' and means I did a really good job of paraphrasing in my own words. But here is is, my first 0%


Anyway, I am so excited to only have 4 more classes to go. I should be done by May next year.

6 down, 4 to go!