Chorazyczewski 1

Striving for Progress, Not Perfection

Megan Chorazyczewski
MATC Synthesis Paper
Michigan State University
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Introduction

I have always had a passion for learning and knew with certainty from a young age that I

would become a teacher one day. I would play school alone in my room for hours, calling out

made up names to “take attendance” and teaching my imaginary students how to multiply multi-

digit numbers on the whiteboard that hung on my wall. I was fortunate enough to have had

exceptional educators throughout my school experience who inspired me and made teaching

look effortless and fun. What no one tells you when you are an aspiring educator is how

challenging this profession can truly be. No one tells you that you will feel like there are too many

people you need to please on a daily basis: students, families, community members, colleagues,

principals, administrators. No one tells you that it’s an impossible task to fit everything into the

school day that needs to be taught and more often than not, your thoughtfully planned lesson

will be disrupted due to a behavioral issue. No one could have prepared me for the nights I have

lost sleep worrying about my students long after I have gone home. I am not naive to the fact

that every job has its challenges. I wouldn’t trade my job for anything because what I receive in

return for all of the struggle is more than worth it. However as a self-proclaimed people pleaser

and perfectionist, I tend to fixate on all of my shortcomings, even when they may be out of my

control. I’m actively working on shifting my mindset to strive for progress instead of perfection.

Context of the Problem

My first year of teaching is a bit of a blur. Although I tried to relish every moment of finally

having a classroom to call my own, I felt as if I barely made it across the finish line. Not because

it was an unsuccessful school year, but because I was still in the process of learning. I know there

were lessons that could have been better. I could have handled behavior incidents differently. I
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wanted a very structured classroom environment while also trying a little too hard to be liked by

my students. There were so many things I was still trying to figure out and that was my personal

excuse for everything I felt I did wrong. I would tell myself, “Don’t worry, you’re going to have it

all figured out next year!” So year two comes along and I feel as if I am struggling more than I

did before. I left my classroom everyday feeling frustrated and defeated. My behavior

management was lacking because each day was a constant barrage of behavior incidents and

classroom disruptions. Our sense of community in the classroom was poor. Students were

constantly bickering, and I had parents expressing concerns. Some felt I was too lenient and

others felt I was too strict. It felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions, it just

added to my confusion. Wasn’t I supposed to have everything figured out now? My first year

should have been the year where I would “iron out the kinks”. Looking back at it now, I realize I

had lost sight of who I was as an educator. I was sacrificing my own good judgement, primarily

rooted in my education and passion for the job, to make decisions based on what others had told

me. Self-doubt becomes your downfall when you’re in a profession where every single quick

decision affects a room full of 28 nine year-olds.

I decided to pursue a Master’s degree from Michigan State University. I applied to the

MATC Master’s Program with a focus in Educational Psychology and I am thrilled with this choice.

The courses I have taken have helped continue to influence who I am as an educator and that in

turn, has positively impacted my students. I have a better understanding how the identities and

life experiences that belong to a child play a significant role in shaping who they are as a learner.

I have developed more effective strategies for managing my classroom to spend less time

correcting behaviors and more time collaborating and learning with my students. Most
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importantly, I have developed more confidence in myself as an educator. I feel more competent

to service the various needs of my students and develop meaningful relationships to hopefully

make a lasting impact.

Classroom Community

One aspect of my classroom that has improved tremendously as a result of the work done

in the MATC Program is my ability to create a strong sense of community. My initial perception

was that a classroom community is established at the beginning of the school year. However, I

have come to the realization that a classroom community is something you constantly have to

work to maintain each day. As part of my action research project in TE 808 (Inquiry Into

Classroom Teaching & Learning), I identified a problem area in my fourth grade classroom. The

problem that I chose to research and work to solve was the fact that a few students were

dominating classroom discussions and the others were disengaged, creating a negative impact

on student learning and our sense of community. I completed a literature review that gave me

ideas on how I could initiate changes to improve our classroom discussions. With these ideas in

mind, I created a three week plan and collected data. At the conclusion of my action research

project (Artifact 1), I detailed how taking the time to learn classroom norms and explicit

instruction for social skills, like engaging in discussions, play an important role in not only

academic achievement, but also for building a positive classroom community.

Since completing this action research project, I have been intentional throughout the year

to make time for not just academic tasks, but explicitly teaching the skills students will need to

succeed in completing those tasks. For example, modeling throughout the year how to be a good

partner when working in partnerships, establishing expectations for sharing our thinking with the
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class, and listening to others while they share by showing we agree or disagree. My action

research project was conducted mid-year and in a short period of time I was able to see results.

It was a turning point for me in realizing that if we work together to meet the set standards and

hold one another accountable, it develops a healthy environment for students to feel

comfortable in sharing their thinking, and feeling like they are heard by their classroom

community. This was the start of my interest in the role that social skills play in promoting success

in the classroom.

Classroom Management

Along with building a positive classroom community, another area that I have been able

to improve through my work in the MATC Program is my classroom management. Again, a

misconception I had in my first two years of teaching was the word “management” strictly meant

managing, or dealing with behavior incidents. This mindset is exhausting because when I was

thinking about it from this perspective, it made me feel as if negative behaviors were inevitable

and there was nothing I could do about it. I was once again reevaluating my beliefs in CEP 883

(Psychology of Classroom Discipline). Through this course, I learned about all the different

aspects to consider in a classroom environment that allow you to actively work to prevent

behaviors from happening in the first place. It is naïve to believe that negative behaviors will

disappear completely, but I know now that there are things I can do as the facilitator of the

environment to ensure that our classroom runs smoothly.

I created a Classroom Management Plan in CEP 883 (Artifact 2). In this plan, I considered

the various aspects that can strongly affect the way a classroom is run. I thought about the

physical set up of the room, giving students a voice in developing classroom expectations,
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building a relationship with students and families, encouraging positive peer relationships and a

problem-solving approach to behavior issues when they come along. I used the knowledge from

the course texts to make informed decisions and I have been thrilled with the results. Since

implementing this system in my classroom, I have felt more effective as a teacher and I have seen

overall improvements in how my students feel about our classroom environment.

Social-Emotional Learning

With the work I had done thus far in improving my classroom community and classroom

management, there was still a prominent factor that remained. There were some instances

where students still struggled to interact positively with their peers or express their emotions

appropriately. As hard as I tried to create the “perfect” classroom community and implement

the best management strategy, I was still left wondering what more could be done to support

these students? As a result, another major focus for me became Social-Emotional Learning (SEL).

Another reason I was especially interested in SEL was my school community overall was finding

an incredible need for quality and consistent SEL instruction to service the needs of our students.

In CEP 801 (Psychological Development) I completed a research study (Artifact 4) on the

socialization of elementary age children. Based on my own experiences working in a Title I

building, I was curious if my hypothesis that socio-economic status directly correlates with the

development of social and emotional competencies was correct. Through my research, I found

that some social and emotional skills and their development are directly related to socio-

economic status. This can be attributed to the deficit in resources that allow for the ability to

acquire these competencies available to children from low-income families. I also found that

schools play a huge role in giving students authentic opportunities to explicitly learn and practice
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these social and emotional skills. Direct instruction and implementing SEL curriculums have

shown great success in schools.

Knowing how effective an SEL curriculum could be based on my research, this led me to

doing additional research on specific curriculums in CEP 866 (Psychoeduational Interventions).

In this course, we focused on many different types of interventions that can be used to ensure

students are on the path to reaching their fullest potential. When given the opportunity to create

a stakeholders presentation (Artifact 5), it was an obvious choice to focus mine on SEL instruction.

If the purpose was to create buy-in from educators on an intervention, then I felt it was important

to focus my energy on creating a positive outlook on utilizing a scripted curriculum for SEL

instruction in my school community. A colleague and I worked together to identify all of the

benefits a scripted SEL curriculum can have on our student population, which was in such dire

need of direct instruction to assist in developing necessary social and emotional skills.

Some of the most important ideas I want to remember going forward is the impact SEL

can have on a student, not only for their emotional well-being but for their academic success as

well. With the work I have done in these courses, I continue to keep this information at the

forefront of my planning. I know that in order to be ready to learn, my students need the time

and instruction to develop the necessary social and emotional skills that allow them to feel

successful in the classroom.

Teacher Leader

There are so many things I feel I have improved as a result of the learning and reflection

I have done throughout my MATC courses. A final aspect that I know now is just as important as

personal growth is sharing that learning with others. I never viewed myself as a leader in my
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school community before taking the capstone course TE 872 (Teachers as Teacher Educators),

but now I understand the importance of sharing your beliefs and knowledge with others. After

intentionally choosing classes that allowed me to reflect on and improve my classroom

community building, classroom management and understanding of how SEL can positively

impact my students, I realized how critical it is that I share this knowledge with others.

In fulfillment of the requirements for TE 872, I developed a Leadership Project (Artifact

6). In this project, I created a presentation to use at a staff meeting hosted at the beginning of

the school year to share my newfound knowledge with the rest of my colleagues. The

introduction of the slideshow included survey data that I acquired from my principal. It is evident

from staff members’ responses to this survey that a lot of the things I was experiencing my first

couple of years like frustration, confusion, and exhaustion were shared among many staff

members. It was eye-opening to realize that even the veteran teachers in the school were feeling

those same mix of emotions that I was as a new teacher. It felt comforting to know I was not

alone and it made me all the more excited to step into a role as a teacher leader. I created a

step-by-step plan that details the importance of using an SEL curriculum schoolwide with fidelity.

It gives the staff an opportunity to collaborate with one another, share perspectives, and further

their learning about SEL and how it could benefit our school community.

I felt as if everything came full-circle, back to that initial feeling before beginning the

MATC Program when I was trying to be the perfect teacher, and feeling defeated when I realized

I wasn’t. Throughout all of the research, reflection, learning and collaboration that I have done

through my courses, I realized that I was able to come so far and make so much progress without
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even reaching perfection at all. All I can do is actively work to be better than I was yesterday by

continuing my learning and making informed decisions in the best interest of my students.

Conclusion

There is no secret to becoming the teacher that has it “all figured out”. The real secret is:

Perfection in education does not exist. The term “perfection” makes it sound like there is a finite

destination, but that is far from reality. I realize now that I am on a journey for progress with no

end in sight. Education will forever be an evolving profession in order to prepare students to

become functioning members of a constantly evolving society. I think the best teachers are those

that make the commitment to be lifelong learners. When teachers strive for progress, it means

they are seeking knowledge to meet the ever changing needs of students throughout their

careers. This can be accomplished by seeking out advice from colleagues, engaging in

professional development opportunities and making oneself aware of the contexts that directly

affect their individual classroom. I am grateful for all that I have learned through the MATC

program, as it has helped me to arrive at the realization to make the commitment to continue

educating myself to improve my practice. If my fellow teachers and I constantly work towards

being better than we were yesterday, that’s about as close to perfect as it comes.