Graduate Portfolio!

     After 21 years of formal education I am reaching the end of my current learning journey: my Masters degree!  While I truly believe that education is a lifelong experience; I am very excited to celebrate this accomplishment!  I know that I will begin another degree in the future (distant future; when my babies are in high school maybe) but for the time being I am concluding my journey at B.U.  I have officially started my LAST class of my M.Ed, Graduate Summative Seminar, and have begun compiling evidence of my learning through this experience.

This has perhaps been the MOST difficult learning experience I have undertook simply because every other experience has allowed me to have one focus: being a student.  For the first time in my academic journey I was balancing a new career, pregnancy, a new child…. a busy toddler, and then another pregnancy.  School was no longer in a classroom with students and an instructor to devote your focus to… it was online, 100% independent, and usually completed in the late evening after a full day at work and/or with a child in your lap.  When I started this journey the idea that you were limited to one class a semester seemed laughable after going from a full 5-class course load.  When balancing all of life’s other priorities, however, one class was sometimes impossible.

With that being said, the learning that I have experienced in the last 3 years has been invaluable to me as both an educator but also a mother, wife, and community member.  This has truly been the best PD I could have ever participated in and am a better person because of it.  I am very lucky to have had a solid support network around me including my husband, parents, in-laws, colleagues, and professors who have helped me meet my goals.

     Here is a look at my M.Ed journey, including a detailed look at each of the classes I participated in. 

Program Portfolio Screenshot. (2018). Uploaded by Kirsten Thompson. Available online at: https://kthompson97.wixsite.com/programportfolio