Pamela Karavite ~ Portfolio
Seeking Significance...
Annotated Transcript
Below are descriptions of the courses I completed as part of the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program at Michigan State University.
Fall ~ 2010
EAD 801: Leadership & Organizational Development
Instructor: Gerald A. Jennings, Ed. D.
EAD 801 was the first course I completed in the MAED program. This course focused on expanding participants' perspectives on organizational leadership challenges, and thereby to assist them as potential leaders in formulating enlightened approaches to addressing the challenges of organizations and leadership. This course had a specific application focus directed toward school leadership. The final paper for this course was about how I would be applying and/or extending and/or reflecting upon my leadership in the future as a result of my learning from this course. This paper is included in my Showcase section ~ Student Achievement: The Time/Team Relationship. Grade: 4.0
Spring ~ 2011
ED 800: Concepts Educational Inquiry
Instructor: Steven Weiland, Professor
This course provided an opportunity to think and write about essential questions of education. The goal was understanding of essential methods and domains of educational inquiry: 1) Philosophical thought, a traditional feature of "foundations of education"; 2) Classroom-based, or teacher (or practitioner) inquiry; 3) Theories of the mind, intelligence, and the organization of the curriculum; 4) Biography and history focused on learning out of school; 5) Ethnographic "participant observation" and personal reflection focused on experience in other cultures; and 6) New communications and information technologies and their impact on teaching and learning--and educational careers. ED 800 represents the fact that studying education, from early schooling through adult work, is a multi-disciplinary endeavor inviting us to understand the nature of learning, teaching, administration, and leadership from different but complementary perspectives. Within this course, I wrote seven persuasive intent papers in an effort to persuade my readers with evidence to represent my thinking via encounters with all the course resources. Grade: 4.0
Fall ~ 2011
CEP 843: Autism Spectrum Disorders: Characteristics & Educational Implications
Instructor: Dr. Summer Ferreri
This course provided me with specific knowledge on the characteristics associated with individuals on the Autism Spectrum. The disorder currently includes Autism, Asperger Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Discorder Not Otherwise Specified, Rett's Syndrome, and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. This course also explored a comprhensive history of Austism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) including etiology, theories and related research regarding the cause, prevalence rates, and the impact of ASD on learning, family systems, and communities. Additionally, this course provides an introduction to various topics that are both explicitly and implicitly related to ASD such as referral/placement, parental collaboration, cultural variability, hearth/medical considerations, transitions, language/communication, behavior, sensory processing, social functionin and academics. The overarching goal of this course was to provide participants with a broad understanding of the impact of ASD on learning, family and the community across the lifespan. This course wrapped up with a Language Research Presentation which can be viewed on my Showcase page. Grade: 4.0
Spring ~ 2012
CEP 832: Teaching Children with Challenging Behavior
Instructor: Dr. Evelyn R. Oka
This course focused on understanding the psychological and behavioral characteristics of children who are "tough to teach." We learned research-based practices for instruction and classroom management for these students and how to develop partnerships with their families. This course enriched my knowledge and skills of behavioral problems that are especially challenging in the classroom: aggressiveness, oppositionality, hyperactivity, and social withdrawl, among others. For each type of problem we explored research-based practices that have proven successful in the classroom and applied them to simulated cases using a positive behavior support approach. We also addressed building cooperative working relationships with these students' parents. This course ended with a culminating project in which I applied the course concepts to a specific student. This project can be found on my Showcase page titled "Changing My Son, Without Changing My Son." Grade: 4.0
Fall ~ 2012
EAD 860: The Concept of the Learning Society
Instructor: Dr. Riyad A. Shahjahan, Ph.D.
"The Learning Society" refers to a complex global configuration of opportunities, practices, and possibilities. While this course at the outset was attentive to global change, in later sections it focused more on "scenes of learning" and the experiences of individual learners. We aspired to think concretely and critically about the learning society which involved the development of a deeper understanding of: (1) what is meant by the learning society; (2) primary domains and activities of the learning society; (3) the experiences and views of individuals living and working in the learning society; (4) what the learning society can mean in the social transformations associated with new information and communications technologies. We used many kinds of texts (scholarly work, autobiography, and journalism) and also films, audio, and online exhibits, to study our subject. Grade 3.5
Spring ~ 2013
CEP 882: The Nature and Design of Compelling Experiences
Instructor: Dr. David Wong
An important goal of educators is to create compelling learning experiences for their students. By compelling, I mean moving the students to see, feel, and respond in new ways. The goal of this course was to provide a more complete understnadin gof compelling experiences by learning from people outside of the field of education. We looked at: Photography, Film and Television, Music, and Architecture. We took a close look at their work, were inspired to think of new and exciting ways to make it more compelling, and turned it into a "work of art" via two-minute moment video projects. These are available for viewing on my Showcase page. Grade 4.0
Fall ~ 2013
EAD 882: Education in the Digital Age
Instructor: Steven Weiland, Professor, EAD
It is a commonplace in education today that technology must be accounted for in all domains of teaching, learning, administration, and leadership. This course focused on what educators at all levels and in all sectors should know of the emerging and fast changing digital world. The course was designed to: 1) Display as much as possible of a considrable domain of inquiry and practice; and 2) Present the ways in which features of the course subject are being debated. Thus, the format was a critical survey, or a reasonably comprehensive look at education in the digital age conducted in the spirit of criticism, or the examination of ideas and practices by weighing their strengths and weaknesses, variations in use, and consequences (wanted and unwanted) for both institutions and individuals. Grade: 4.0
Spring ~ 2014
CEP 801A: Collaboration and Consultation in Special Education
Instructor: Rachel Kopke
This course focused on providing special educators with skills related to decision-making, problem-solving, and collaboration related to the effective education of students with disabilities. I learned to be aware of several key factors that inform decision-making in order to develop thoughtful and responsive instruction for students with disabilities. Some of these factors include attention to the school and classroom environment, instructional and behavioral methods, curriculum, evidence-based practices related to effective teaching and learning, communication and problem-solving skills, and the specific needs of students' with disabilities. In the end, I developed the knowledge and skill sets that special education teachers require to perform their consultation and collaborative roles. Grade: 4.0
Fall ~ 2015
CEP 804A: Reflection and Inquiry in Special Education ~ Literacy Instruction
Instructor: Dr. Carol Englert
This course developed my knowledge, skills, and predispositions related to the effective assessment and implementation of reading and written language interventions for students with literacy related difficulties. Difficulties in reading, language, and writing impede with the performance of students with disabilities across the school curriculum. This course gave me the knowledge to respond to these difficulties through an examination of methods that could be employed to: (1) observe and measure the reading and writing performance of special education students; (2) design interventions that address students' phonemic awareness, decoding, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and motivation abilities; (3) develop and implement literacy interventions that imporove the strategy knowledge and self-regulated performance of students as they read and write expository or narrative texts; (4) evaluate the literacy progress of students through frequent progress mopnitoring; and (5) implement evidence-based teaching practices that promote students' deep knowledge, mastery and understanding of literacy principles and skills. Two of my projects from this course are shown on my Showcase page. Grade: 4.0
Spring ~ 2016
ED 870: Capstone Seminar
Instructor: Dr. Matthew Koehler
This is my final course in the Master of Arts in Education program at Michigan State University. The Capstone Seminar focuses on the culmination of my academic efforts and the building of a web-based portfolio. With input from other students in the course, this collaboration will yield a well-organized representation of my work in the program, as well as helping other students enhance their developing portfolios.