GOAL REFLECTION - KAIZEN

Continually Improving

     My pedagogical goal entering Michigan State University was driven by six years of teaching and the four years of college prior to that. I earned my bachelor’s degree in English Literature, for I had a love for reading and writing. Even before entering college, I knew I would be an English teacher, thus I studied what I would teach. Not once did I take a teaching class. I was able to get a job teaching English directly out of college, and spent six years teaching before I noticed it was time to take my role as an educator to the next level and pursue graduate work in education. In my time teaching, I experienced numerous occasions in which students made substantial break troughs in the texts we were engaged in. However, my lessons where not manifesting these experiences in all of my students. I noticed this particularly in my English Language Learners and Exceptional Student Learners. These students would need additional support in order to make any significant comprehension of difficult texts. Thus my goal at that time was to learn how to take what I learned about the content I was teaching and evolve it into highly effective lessons.

Looking back at my goal entering MSU, it was broad and not really formed with true inquiry in mind, something I learned in my initial course, Concepts of Educational Inquiry. My goal has since then been refined: What best practices can I implement in my classroom to build greater connections between my struggling readers and difficult texts. I want for all my students to be provided the opportunity to experience the rush of euphoria when epiphany strikes them with realization about literature. This means I must constantly seek to improve my lessons with variables that open new pathways of illumination for even my struggling readers. However, my studies revealed a daunting truth about highly effective lessons: there is always more to learn. As humanity is continually developing mentally, physically, and emotionally, education must also continually develop and improve. New theories and studies emerge every year, many of which impact the practices of teachers. So as I am approaching the finish to my Masters in Education, I recognized earning a master’s degree is not an end of a race, but simply another step in continual improvement.

The change in my goal is mostly due to a phrase my first principal while teaching always used: Kaizen. This term, in both Chinese and Japanese, means “continuous improvement.” It is applied to all facets of business, from the simplest actions to the largest ideals. I find it fitting to take a concept I didn’t fully comprehend when I first started teaching and use it years later as the fundamental notion behind refining my goal as an effective teacher.