My Adventure

Being a student, at any level of education, is an adventure. It is an adventure that contains highs and lows, struggles and success, hard work and enjoyment, and my educational adventure was/is no different. My path to get to this point starts at a young age surrounded by parents and role models who were all in the field of education. Admittedly, I was never what most would consider a great “student”. I was not up studying all night to get straight A’s, nor was I in the library every day during school. I was a student who was able to get good grades without putting in too much work. In no way am I bragging about that, it is simply the reality of my educational path. I am not going to say I wish I could have changed that because every decision I made brought me to this point in life and I couldn’t be happier. However, when I think about why I did not put in the maximum amount of effort in school, I seem to come to the same conclusion every time, a lack of interest in what I was learning.

I knew high school was laying the foundation for my educational career. I was fortunate enough to attend one of the top college prep schools in Los Angeles, but I often found myself thinking “When am I going to use this information?” My undergraduate studies were a bit more focused seeing as I was able to pick my courses and follow a path more in line with my passion to be an educator, but because of the work load during high school, college at times felt easier and less of a challenge. None of this is to say I didn’t learn or grow from the time I was a freshman in high school until the time I graduated college. I gained friends that I still have to this day, created memories that will last a lifetime, and was able attend high school where my father worked which I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. However, what is missing from that list is anything regarding the educational portion and in my opinion that is okay. Everyone has their own path, as I said, education is an adventure. At this point, you might be wondering how that adventure led a person who did not find school too engaging to embark on a two-year journey to earn a masters degree. If I am being honest, I was wondering the same thing. However, what I saw in front of me when I set out on this portion of my adventure was a challenge. A challenge in the direction that I wanted to go rather than a load of courses being placed in front of me and being told “Learn this, it will help you later on in life.” A challenge that would push me harder than ever before and strengthen my skills as a teacher, educator, motivator, and a student. I can say now, as my time in the Michigan State Masters of Arts in Education Program (MAED) comes to an end, I was not let down. 

At the onset of my graduate studies I was faced with the challenge of filling out my Program Planning form to lay out my potential courses for the next two years. While none of this was set in stone, I wanted to pick a group of classes that would challenge me to grow in three areas which were as follows: Learn more about injury care and prevention to better assist the athletes I worked with on a day to day basis. Strengthen my knowledge on the Psychosocial portion of being a coach/teacher. Lastly, gain more tools and strategies on being an effective leader to those who follow me. 

I can happily report that every one of my courses in the MAED Program fell into one of my three learning goals. However, there were three that stood out and changed the way I viewed each topic. The first to meet that criteria would be, Kinesiology (KIN) 829 – Safety and Injury Control taught by Dr. Andrew Driska. The name is what initially caught my interest and after reading the course description which stated “Managing the health and safety of sports participants…Prevention, care, and management of injuries.” I knew I found a winner. As a high school football coach, one of my biggest and most difficult goals is to get my athletes through the season healthy. I spend hundreds of hours with my athletes throughout the year and build relationships with them to a point where I view them as children of my own. In other words, I care about their well-being and am more concerned with them staying healthy than wins or losses. Throughout my coaching career I have been blessed enough to work at school with extremely skilled and talented Athletic Trainers. With that in the back of my mind, I never had to pay much attention to the injury care because I knew that they were getting the best treatment with our trainer.  This course provided me the opportunity to take a deeper look into the causes on injuries rather than just dealing with the aftermath of it. Throughout the course we were allowed to explore common injuries that took place in our sport or sport of interest. As football is a game of violent contact, I continually picked concussions as my injury of choice. The topic of concussions in football is a touchy one. Parents have started to pull their kids from the sport because of the fear of long-term damage as a result of repeated blows to the head. I will admit, I was a bit old school and did not buy into the seriousness of them at first. The in-depth knowledge I was able to gain through this course changed my opinion on the seriousness of concussions and changed the way I coached the game of football. I changed my practice plans to reduce the amount of time that our athletes were hitting full speed. I also did major research on new tackling techniques which may reduce the risk of a major blow to the head resulting in a concussion. Ultimately, I came away from this course with a new outlook on concussions and new tools for preventing injuries. I have utilized these tools every day and continue to shape my coaching technique around the goal of protecting my athletes. 

My next topic of interest which changed the way I go about my daily life was the psychological aspect of playing sports. This was an area that I had always been passionate about and felt I had a solid grasp on but wanted some confirmation that things I was doing worked or find new ways to improve those skills. I felt that going into coaching and teaching at a younger age provided me the opportunity to connect with my students and athletes on a different level compared to some of my colleagues. That is not to say that my colleagues cannot do the same thing, but times are rapidly changing. The new generation of student athlete is growing up with the ever-expanding world of technology around them. I hold the belief that this places a new form of pressure on them that some teachers or coaches are not familiar with. KIN 855 – Psychosocial Bases of Coaching, again taught by Dr. Andrew Driska, examined the pressures, confidence, and anxiety issues that student athletes deal with daily. More importantly the class was challenged with creating our own ways to help our students get through those issues. I was particularly motivated by the ability to discuss with other classmates through video lectures and challenge each other on our ideals and beliefs. Not in a negative way, but rather, always in the form of constructive criticism. Dr. Driska provided first-hand knowledge on how he navigated through his seasons as a swim coach. I walked away from the course with a newfound respect for the ability to plan for a seasons stress on the mind. With a better understanding of that stress, I am able to adjust my seasons plans and goals accordingly which ultimately benefits my student athletes. 

The third and final course which has had a major impact on my life, and is currently still ongoing would be Educational Administration (EAD) 863 –Training & Professional Development taught by Dr. John Dirkx. As a coach, I have always prided myself on being what I call a student of the game. I do not pretend to know everything there is to know about the game of football nor do I think I ever will. There is always going to be a new strategy or method which I can add to my coaching toolbox to help my athletes. I have always studied the beliefs of past and current coaches or gone on coaching seminar trips so I felt as if I was taking all of the right steps. With that confidence in myself, at the time of placing this course on my program planning form, I was not positive how much I would get out of it. I could not have been more wrong. Halfway through the MAED Program I had a career change from coaching and teaching in the education world, to coaching and teaching in the restaurant world. My current occupation as a corporate trainer and manager for a chain of restaurants has presented a completely new set of challenges to take on. As a football coach, I was teaching young children who were eager to soak up as much knowledge as possible. As a corporate trainer for a restaurant, I am teaching mature adults, who at times are set in their ways and do not want to change how they complete tasks. EAD 863 takes on the challenge of professional development and the ability to train adults. Lifelong learning is not something that everyone is accustomed to. Humans are creatures of habit and if we do something one way for long enough, it can be tough to break that habit and learn a new way. This has been a huge challenge for me in my new line of work. Dr. Dirkx has given our class a copious amount of knowledge and skill to design, develop, and eventually deliver training to working adults across any occupation. The course will wrap up with an assignment to develop a training program in our field of choice. I plan on taking full advantage of this by creating a kitchen safety training program with the hopes of eventually distributing that program across the entire chain of restaurants that I work for. My biggest takeaway from this course so far has been the idea that providing a safe and conducive environment for learning is just as important for adults as it is for children. It is important, at any age, that you are motivated to learn what is being taught. Without that motivation, the likelihood of retaining that information drops significantly. Whether it is in the field of education or restaurants, I will take what Dr. Dirkx has taught me and continue to work on my professional development skills for the remainder of my working life. 

As my adventure reaches the end of this chapter, I could not be happier that I made the decision to join the MAED program. It had all the struggles and success, the highs and lows, hard work and enjoyment that I anticipated and then some. It is because all of that, I leave with a better understanding of myself as a teacher, educator, and motivator. I hope I am able to turn that better understanding into opportunities for myself and those around me in whatever occupational field I find myself in. I am not sure what the future holds, but I do know the Michigan State University Master of Arts in Education Program was one of the best decisions I have made in my life.