This program has been such a stable part of my life for the past two years that it is a little

strange to think about what to do when it's done. Every Wednesday 4 the last many

Wednesdays I have spent my time at Nebraska Wesleyan University with my cohort learning

and reflecting on what it means to be an educator. I spent two weeks of my last two summers

looking at how I can better serve my students, the people I work with, and myself in the

classroom. Oh I'm not mad about having my Wednesday nights back, it will be strange not to

spend them with my cohort who I have come to trust and value over the course of these two

years. However, I am excited for what the next chapter in my professional life will look like as a

result of this program and having met all of the excellent people I have.

First and foremost, I want to continue to make use of the research, strategies, and instructional

techniques that I have learned throughout the courses I have taken. My biggest take away from

the past two years has been those things that I can learn in class on Wednesday night and

implement on Thursday morning in my classroom. So my action step would be to continue to

use the things I have learned and continue looking for new things that I can implement in my

classroom and encourage my colleagues to implement in theirs as well.

Another goal of mine as I exit this program is to realize that I have the desire to pursue further

education to better myself and my students. This is not something that I am going to be

pursuing within the next year but it is something I am looking at completing in the near future. I

would want to complete an educational leadership Master's degree or an education doctorate. I

feel that both of these would allow me to better myself as an educator and have opportunities

open up for me in the future. These degrees could lead to jobs outside of the classroom or just

more teacher leader positions within my current position. I tell my students that education
opens up doors for you even if you don't know that the door is there yet. I want to always be

ready for the next opportunity that is available to me.

I am going to continue developing the Humanities curriculum for Lincoln Public Schools. There

are many things that I have learned in this program that I'm going to take and continue to

implement in that curriculum writing and in that curriculum's instruction. Because this is a

curriculum that is going to exit the pilot stage and enter push out to the entire district in this next

year I know that I am going to be taking on more leadership and training positions. What I have

learned in this program is going to help me facilitate positive peer relationships as well as

facilitate the instruction of how this curriculum is designed and works. It will also allow me to talk

more fully about why we are using some of the strategies we are and how that is the best thing

for our students.

In order to facilitate these action steps I am planning on attending some future conferences

pertaining to my problem of practice. The American Middle Level Education Conference is being

held on November 12-14, 2020 in National Harbor, MD. They present many different topics

geared toward middle level educators including Project-Based Learning, Student Engagement

and Motivation, Differentiated Instruction, Literacy, STEM, Student Achievement, Bullying and

Safety, Classroom Management, and Dropout Prevention. The other conference I am interested

in attending is the Innovative Schools Summit in Atlanta, GA during June 24-28, 2020. This

conference is one I would like to attend because it addresses many of the issues that my school

faces such as school climate & culture, classroom management, social-emotional learning, and

at-risk & struggling students. Both of these conferences would be helpful in addressing my

problem of practice as well as growing my ideas as an educator.