How the MAED Program Has Helped Me Reach My Goals

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I started the Master or Arts in Education program in the summer of 2011 with the hope that this program would help me develop the skills necessary to eventually become an administrator, preferably an athletic director.  This program has given me the opportunity to develop, implement, and improve educational methods that are conducive to all students and their educational learning process.  This program has provided me with multiple avenues of improving my own education on the process necessary to develop these skills.  In all honesty, I couldn’t have asked for a better environment to further my educational goals.  I feel that this program has been a great experience that has enhanced me personally and helped me progress towards what I want out of my career.

 

Originally, my plan was to have the P-12 School and Postsecondary Leadership concentration area as my main area of focus with the Sports Leadership and Coaching concentration area as my secondary preference, but as the program advanced, I found myself more drawn to the Sports and Coaching classes and ended up switching my areas of concentration.  The Education Leadership classes were have been great and very educational, but I found myself drawn more to the intricacies of coaching and being and athletic administrator.  I have always been very involved in different teams within my school where I am an elementary physical education teacher, but after learning from the courses in this program, I have taken on more leadership roles and feel more confident in my roles within these teams.  I teach in Detroit and deal with students from very diverse backgrounds with different learning needs and disabilities and courses in the MAED program have helped me develop my own approaches to how I teach these students and I have learned more about how my students learn.  Not only have I enjoyed earning my Masters Degree online, but I have enjoyed learning about the ever changing world of education and how students can learn from technology and all it has to offer.

 

I am still teaching at the same school that I was when I started this program, but have taken on more leadership roles as I talked about above.  My coaching career has been progressing nicely since I started this program and I have made some nice advances.  I am still a Varsity Assistant coach for Novi High School baseball but have, more or less, been lined up to take over the program when the head coach retires.  I went from coaching a Novi Travel team to working for the Bullpen Baseball Academy and coaching one of their “elite” travel teams, the Michigan Bulls.  I coach almost year round now and work camps and lessons through the academy and have made countless connections and networked with many college coaches and professional players.

 

Being able to pursue this degree online on my own schedule has been very beneficial.  I live a very busy and active life and I could not have asked for a better program to pursue my goals.