30 before 30: Master's degree

When I started working at Loretto I had completed a handful of undergraduate education courses and had spent several summers teaching and directing a summer camp for elementary school kids. I was completely qualified on content, but felt I needed more teacher training. Although I do believe a lot of teaching is an innate quality, and, I believe teaching can be learned while doing, I knew that I needed more training to be as good a teacher as I wanted to be. So in my second year of teaching I simultaneously began a program to earn my Master in Education.

Many of my courses were amazing for helping me to become a better teacher. After every course I went home thinking about how to apply what I had learned in my classroom. I took courses that helped me employ different techniques, challenged my philosophies on learning and encouraged technology in the classroom. I can honestly say that I became a better teacher because of things I learned during my master's program.

I completed my entire degree while teaching full time. It took three years. In my final year of courses I wrote my thesis about Baby Think It Over, the electronic babies used to teach students about the demands of parenting. It was a program that I facilitated as a teacher and it was fun and fascinating to learn about as a method of teaching about teen parenting.

I started my final semester just days before I found out that Loretto was closing. And I received my diploma just days before I closed up my classroom and moved on to a new career.

Today I work in an entirely different industry, but I am grateful for what I learned while earning my master's degree. I met a lot of wonderful people. The technology courses have served me even in a different field and learning about different theories and philosophies of education have helped me to better understand the varying needs of people. But mostly I am grateful that those three years helped me to be a better teacher to the young women who sat in my classroom. And if anything I learned and put into practice helped any one of them to learn, then it was three years well spent.