Rebuilding Oneself

 

 

 

 

ReBUILD. The Merriam-Webster dictionary identifies the term rebuild as a verb, used to convey an action, meaning “to build (something) again after it has been damaged or destroyed; to make important improvements or changes (to something)”. The latter of these definitions perfectly describes my journey through the Michigan State University, Master of Arts in Education Degree (MAED) program. Initially, I looked at this program as a step-stoning to help decipher whether or not I wanted to pursue my doctorate in Education or if I wanted to take a clinical route such as Counseling or Psychology. This program not only offered me insight into making this decision but it also offered me insight into my own life. MAED aided me in fostering the necessary ‘important improvements’ that were key to helping me rebuild my outlook and interpretation on life.

 

I applied to the MAED program in the Spring of 2013. I had little insight into what the program would entail beyond the description that I had read online and the conversations that I had with John Olle and Cindy, respectively the academic advisor and administrative staff of the program. In former programs that I completed (that is my undergraduate degree and Master of Arts in Community Counseling), I had experiences with former students and/or current staff and students so I had more insight into both the schools and the specific programs. However, this time around, both the school and the program where completely new. To add being at a new school to being in a program that I had limited knowledge about...I was taking all online courses! In either of my two other programs, I had never taken an online course before so there were some concerns (i.e. how do you connect with other students, how are class room discussions formed within the virtual world) surrounding this unfamiliar learning environment. Luckily my sister is a professor and teaches online courses and was able to help me gain some insight into this new journey by discussing her experiences with online teaching. By looking over some of her syllabi and doing a google search on online learning (this was actually more informative than one would think), it helped minimize the concern I had going into my first semester of this online only Master’s program.

 

My first semester in the MAED program was the Fall of 2013. During the semester, I took one course in English (to cover my concentration in literacy requirement) and one course in Education Administration (to cover one of my electives). Both courses immediately pushed me into my first phase of rebuilding my outlook on life.

 

The English course was taught by Chad Waldron and was entitled, Elementary Reading Assessment and Instruction. Beyond taking this course to fulfill my literacy requirement, I thought this course would be a great opportunity for me to learn different assessment tools and techniques that I could use with my clients. In this course, I was able to take away all of those things and was pushed to do so much more. Chad asked that we use different social media avenues to increase our communication with our fellow colleagues and as a means of learning different ways of communicating and using instructional tools with students. So in this course, I used twitter for the first time. When I initially saw that we would be using social media tools on the course syllabus, I nearly dropped the class but once I saw Chad’s “welcome to the course” video I knew I had to give the class a chance. I was definitely glad that I did. While I do not use social media personally, I have found it to be very helpful when working with youth as it helps to engage them and it is also a way of instructing them on how they can use these tools professionally and effectively rather than using it simply for the pleasure of chatting with friends and/or to become celebrity voyeurs. So this course pushed me outside of my comfort zone and helped me to see how I could use tools that youth already use in academic or clinical settings. While this course was great in teaching me the aforementioned things, the Education and Administration course taught by Drs. Muhammad Khalifa and Terah Chambers gave me more insight then I could have ever imagined.

 

The course that Drs. Khalifa and Chambers facilitated was entitled, Detroit Schools: Historical Perspectives and Cultural Implications. In my initial view of the syllabus I was in shock at all of the books and articles we were to read and had a brief moment of panic. However, I was drawn to this course as I am a native Detroiter and had taken courses on Detroit during my undergraduate career. Therefore, I wanted to see how this course would enhance the things that I learned during that academic journey. Within this class, the professors asked that my colleagues and I read several books that helped fashion our understanding of the historical underpinnings of the educational system not only in the nation but more specifically in Detroit. In reading the first two books, we were given the historical context of why not only the city of Detroit is structured the way that it currently is but we were given the reasons behind why and how the educational system was developed and has since changed from a rural, communal system to an urban, individualized system. Since we were asked to understand the background  of the city of Detroit, we had to look at the intersectionality of social economic status, race, gender, religion and geographical location which were all factors in the makeup of the city. In reviewing these things within the first set of course readings, I discovered things about my own family that refashioned my understanding of my own lineage.

 

In diving into this course readings, I learned about the different neighborhoods within the city and one neighborhood in particular stood out to me as it was the neighborhood where my father grew up and helped his father run the family business. In continuing to read about that specific neighborhood, I learned that my grandfather was one of the first people to own their own business within the city. This was eye opening to me as my father had never shared this information with me or my siblings. After reading this information, I phoned my parents to confirm what I had read and then began my search online to see what else I could uncover.

 

This course was a pivotal moment in my life as it had given me something that I did not even know that I had as it relates to my lineage. It brought back a flood of memories of my grandfather, my father’s childhood neighborhood and its neighbors (many of which are still friends of my family to this day). It helped me to look beyond what the world and news reports on the city of Detroit but to look at its root, its stem and helped me to see how my connection to the city could help me to rebuild the way in which I was working with my clients. Through this personal discovery, I learned that I could help others discover things about themselves, about their families that could lead to a positive self-exploration. Since the unearthing of this familial information, I have since worked with my clients (i.e. youth, families) to help them look into their lineage to see what is there. By doing this, it has helped people find out things about their parents, grandparents that they never knew and may have never learned if not first prompted. While most youth, families were happy to discover the information they uncovered through these searches, family interviews, etc., all of them were displeased with the initial assignment. Similar to my initial feelings when taking on this program, taking on the aforementioned literacy and educational administration courses, when asked to do this assignment, the unanimous response was, “I have already done a family tree, we did that in first grade.” So needless to say there was some resistance but as I continued on with this assignment and refined my introduction and explanation of it to the youth and/or families, they became very receptive to the process.

 

I believe that this course not only helped me to learn more about myself and my family but it has helped me to sort of pay it forward through the families that I work with through my clinical work. These families and youth are now learning positive things about themselves and their families whereas in the past they had generally heard about only the negative. So this course definitely set a precedent for all the other courses to follow! As well, it set a standard for me to follow by showing me that in every assignment, every task there is something to learn, something to be discovered and possibly something to rebuild.

 

To accompany this course and bring everything back almost full circle, this current summer of 2015 semester, I was also enrolled in another educational administration course entitled, Leadership and Organizational Development.  This course was taught by Dr. William Arnold and outlined leadership skills and organizational change. Dr. Arnold helped me to see how one person could influence the outcome of changes within an organization or agency. This course helped to tie things into perspective with my initial semester in the program in which I was able to connect how different leadership skills influenced the infrastructure of the Detroit Public Schools System.

 

In reflecting on my experiences of working for Detroit Public Schools and residing in the city of Detroit, I was able to see how the political, social and economic state of the city greatly impacted the structure and development of curriculum, instruction and implementation of education within the city’s public school system. As well, this course helped me to understand how my role within this structure plays a part in either contributing to the system being better or contributing to it being worse. Beyond looking at this course from that perspective, I was tasked with seeing how I could implement change within my current role of working with youth and their families. In doing this, I was able to see how I could work with my fellow colleagues in a manner that would help the agency be more cohesive which in turn would help with the individualized plans that were in place for the youth and their families.

 

Lastly, this course helped me to tackle my larger goal of improvement. It helped me to ascertain the difference between who I was when I entered the MAED program nearly two years ago to today. In learning about adaptive leadership skills, I was able to see how this skillset could be used in any workplace environment. As well, I was able to see how it could be used truly in any environment. In utilizing adaptive leadership skills, one must be open with themselves, willing to take a stance and understand when to follow and when to lead. These are competences that must be exercised in order to be respected and effective both in the workplace and in life. In reflecting upon this, I was able to see how my father used this to run the family business-the business that I learned more about through my coursework in this program. I was able to see how things that I was learning within this program were quickly put into practice or had been in practice and I did not truly know it at the time. The aforementioned courses speak to how transformative the MAED program can be for its students and in no means are representative of my total experience (as I could have listed other courses that impacted me as well). However these courses were highlighted in this paper as they played a direct impact in my reconstructing of my life and personal perspective. From discovering new things about my family to implementing change with my current agency and seeing how this change is also impacting my life personally, the MAED program has been important in helping me to simply rebuild.

 

 

Reference

Rebuild. (n.d). In Merriam-Webster online. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rebuild