Courtney Eichhorn
Educator - Leader - Learner
Annotated Transcript
This page serves to outline and describe the courses that I completed to earn a Master of Arts in Education (MAED) from Michigan State University.
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Course Denotations:
EAD - Educational Administration
ED - Education
TE - Teacher Education
CEP - Counseling and Education Psychology
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To view official course descriptions, select the green course boxes below.
Spring 2014
Diverse Students and Families​
Instructor: Dr. Muhammad Khalifa
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The population of school-aged children is becoming increasingly diverse. In this course, I was asked to consider the implications of different social, linguistic, and cultural identities on contemporary education. To meet the needs of a changing population, educators and school leaders must strive to create meaningful learning communities for all students and their families by offering opportunities for discovery and understanding both inside and outside of the classroom. EAD 822 required me to research and develop plans for increasing engagement, school involvement, academic achievement, and life trajectories for the betterment of both students and their families regardless of background.
Summer 2014
Concepts of Educational Inquiry
Instructor(s): Dr. Steven Weiland & Nathan Clason
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This course offered opportunities to explore multiple types of inquiry and the role that each plays in education. I read several texts that discussed the history of education, its purpose, and the idea of how people learn both personally and within the context of formal educational institutions. ED 800 afforded meaningful study (and inquiry) of personal reflective practice, observation, traditional exploration, life-long learning processes, informal learning experiences, technological means of understanding and communication, and theories of intelligence. Through the course, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of teaching and learning and how they relate to educational leadership in modern society.
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Psychoeducational Interventions for Children & Youth
Instructor(s): Dr. Matthew Diemer & James Los
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All students vary in the developmental experiences they have based upon the external and internal variables influencing their overall growth and social and academic well-being. Although all children and youth face difficulties, students with negative life factors are at risk for poor academic and social development as well as poor life outcomes. CEP 866 helped me to understand the normal developmental processes of adolescents and to consider methods that will enable all children to reach their full potential academically by influencing their lives positively within educational contexts. The culminating project for the course allowed me to cooperatively work with other educators to create an intervention for meeting the social and emotional needs of students in order to increase academic participation and accomplishment in school.
Fall 2014
Literacy Instruction for Students with Mild Disabilities
Instructor(s): Dr. Carol Sue Englert, Maryl Randel, & Karen Hicks
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This course emphasized the fact that literacy extends far beyond the skills of reading and writing. Being non-proficient in the area causes significant difficulties for students, particularly those with mild impairments such as learning disabilities. In this class, I used a variety of literacy assessments to determine the educational performance of students with special needs and thus, how to target students' identified literacy weaknesses by gaining knowledge of the cognitive processes utilized while learning. I was able to explore the multiple facets of literacy instruction including phonics, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and writing by designing strategy lessons to incorporate into my own classroom. I also evaluated the effectiveness of interventions through progress monitoring and teacher reflection.
Developing Positive Attitudes Toward Learning
Instructor(s): Dr. Evelyn Oka & Taylor Hicks
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Students demonstrate problems in school for a wide range of reasons. Those that experience long-lasting issues are often considered unmotivated and apathetic toward both learning and school. In CEP 802, I learned how to view motivation through the perspectives of behavior, intrinsic motivation, and personal cognitive beliefs. I further gained an understanding of how teacher and instruction variables influence student motivation. This course provided a means of assessing motivation by analyzing factors such as relevance, task, and required effort and then implementing interventions to foster more active and meaningful learning for perceived uninterested students. In the end, I acquired a repertoire of strategies to increase student motivation in academic endeavors and completed an evidence-based case study with one of my own "unmotivated" students.
Spring 2015
Issues in Urban Education: Factors Contributing to the Persistent Racial Achievement Gap
Instructor: Dr. Christopher Dunbar, Jr.
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This course explained the context, history, and existence of an achievement gap in America's education system, particularly between African American and Caucasian students in urban settings. The content examined statistics and data to support the reality and outlined factors contributing to the persistence of the achievement gap issue. EAD 830 highlighted the necessity of all educators to evaluate their own personal biases and the perpetuating nature of traditional institutions. This class emphasized the critical component of social justice in education and called educators to take action in their own schools to work toward diminishing "the gap."
Summer 2015
The Concept of the Learning Society
Instructor(s): Dr. Steven Weiland & Graham McKeague
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The definition of learning and education alter constantly. Some consider learning to be a private and personal activity, while others believe learning is the ultimate goal of any productive society. In this course, I was able to examine the role of learning and advancement in personal lives, the workplace, formal educational settings, citizenship, technology, and globalization. The class afforded me the opportunity to read a wide variety of texts regarding what is meant by "the learning society" and its implication for growth in the 21st century.
Spring 2016
Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners
Instructor: Jihea Kang
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Within the walls of a single classroom are students of all ability levels. Variances in literacy between students can result from lack of background knowledge and practice, cultural and linguistic differences, disabilities, and students' own personal motivation to perform among many other possible factors. In this course, I became familiar with the components of effective literacy instruction and realized the vital expectation that all educators are teachers of literacy. The content focused upon the accommodations and adaptations that can be made within and across lessons to target individual learning needs as well as the assessment needed to determine areas requiring intensive instruction. TE 846 provided an in-depth study of multiple evidence-based techniques for promoting literacy success in all students in all content areas. I was able to apply the strategies immediately in a case study and analysis on one of my own struggling readers and writers.
Summer 2016
Classroom and Behavior Management in the Inclusive Classroom
Instructor(s): Dr. Troy Mariage, Arfang Dabo, & Danielle Wexler
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This course described the challenges of effective classroom management within a classroom servicing both general and special education students. The material outlined the potential problems and proposed a wide-variety of interventions for making an inclusive classroom a quality learning community for all. In CEP 841, I realized the goal of guiding students to self-control and fostering students' ability to monitor their own behavior based on thorough understanding of expectations. I examined my current practices, my thoughts of discipline, and the role of leadership in the classroom. The implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) at both the classroom and school level was the emphasis for creating positive social, emotional, and academic environments for students and educators alike. In the end, I came away with a new understanding of behavior management as a preventive measure and viewing "discipline" in a positive manner in which new skills could be taught to students.
Fall 2016
Capstone Seminar
Instructor(s): Dr. Matthew Koehler, Aric Gaunt, & Spencer Greenhalgh
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The final course in the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program allowed the opportunity to reflect upon the professional and personal growth accomplished during the MAED process. The activities required synthesis of all learning material and the identification of future learning goals beyond the graduate degree. In the end, I developed a professional online portfolio to showcase my learning, credentials, and graduate work for instructors and for the purpose of prospective employment. ED 870 aided me in establishing a firmer professional presence as well as a site of resources.