ERIC JENKS
CAPSTONE
MSU Course Work
ED 800 Concepts in Educational Inquiry: Dr. Steven Weiland Fall '09
ED 800 was an introductory course for the Master’s program. Its focus was educational inquiry and
used different types of literature to explore questions in education. Throughout the course, we
discussed the "foundations of education", classroom-based and teacher-based inquiry, the history
of schooling, theories of intelligence and the importance of curriculum, different learning styles
based on culture, and finally the importance of embracing new technologies in the classroom. The
course was self-paced which provided a unique experience from those I was used.
ED 870 Capstone Seminar: Dr. Matthew Koehler Fall '12
ED 870 is designed to engage students in discussion and reflection on learning in the Master of Arts
in Education program. Students were asked to create a Web-based portfolio that presents a well-
organized representation of their work and thinking in the program and participate in online
discussion with other students in the seminar around their developing portfolios. Along with
representing themselves, their coursework, resume, and educational/professional backgrounds,
students were asked to reflect on past goals and develop new goals and examine how the program
has helped them to realize stated goals. In addition, students were asked to envision their future as
a learner.
CEP 813 Electronic Portfolios for Teaching & Learning: Dr. Patrick Dickson Spring '10
In this course we learned about electronic portfolios on the Web as a way to offer teachers and
students an extraordinary new medium for self-expression and web presentations. We learned
about the wide variety of applications for electronic portfolios in education. In this course, I created
my first Website which is still available today.
Link to the Electronic Portfolio
CEP 818 Creativity in Teaching & Learning: Dr. Punya Mishra Fall '09
This course focused on a variety of ways to help increase creativity overall and in the classroom.
Over the course of the semester we took an in-depth look at perception, patterning, abstracting,
embodied thinking, modeling, playing and synthesizing as ways to spark new thinking and increase
creativity in the classroom.
CEP 817 Learning Technology Though Design: Dr. Punya Mishra Spring '09
In CEP 817, I had the opportunity to learn how design is an essential component of teaching.
Elements of good and bad design were discussed, as well as the ramifications of each. The
culminating project for this course was a website designed for students. I worked to create a
functional, well-designed learning tool for my class, which I think I was successful in. However, I
chose to use Geocities (yes I’m dating myself) which has since been shut down and thus it is lost
forever.
Link to a lesson that was included in my "Big Kahuna Project
*Yahoo has closed down the site I used to create my whole project, this is all that is left.
KIN 856 Physical Bases of Coaching: George Harnick Summer '12
This class was dedicated to learning necessary physical aspects of coaching. We learned various
muscle groups, how to put together proper nutrition plans, write stretching and warm-up exercised
as well as cool downs and proper strength and conditioning regimes. Most of the time we were
asked to look at each – unit though the eyes of the sport that you coach or would hope to coach.
My coaching focus is based on High School Football and Baseball so the supplements and workout
documents are more geared toward their parents.
Proper technique for hitting a baseball
TE 831 Teaching Subject Matter with Technology: Erik Byker Spring '10
TE 831 focused on integrating technology into our everyday classroom curriculum. We spent the
course exploring different technologies, many that were web-based, that could be implemented into
any classroom. The importance of integrating technology with subject matter is making sure the
technology matches the content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge of both the students and
teachers. We worked together with our peers to create a resource for all of the technology materials
we created throughout the course that could be adapted for any lesson or classroom. Below you
will find a link to the digital story I created and has somehow accumulated over 18,000 views on
Youtube.
TE 843 Secondary Reading Assessment and Instruction: Dr. D. Hartman Spring '12
Secondary Reading Assessment and Instruction course focused on reading and writing instructional
methods and assessment strategies in grades 6-12. This course helped me develop a better
understand of teaching literacy to middle school students. Through the study of, creation and
implementation of multiple case studies I developed the skills and confidence to implement some
of the learned methods and assessments to use for my middle school students. Below is a link to
the week long lesson plan that I designed for the course.
Link to Final Project - Week long lesson plan
TE 846 Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners: Laurel Disney Summer '11
TE 846 focused on differentiating among literacy learners. We spent the beginning of the course
discussing our own reading and writing curriculum with our peers and different things we do on our
own to differentiate for different leveled readers and writers. The second portion of the class
focused on creating different types of assessments for reading and writing. Finally, we discussed
with our peers our different accommodations and modifications that we currently do and could do
in the future to help differentiate with reading and writing. Below you will find a link to the main
project from this course. We were asked to pick a student to focus on in our classroom and to create
two separate, individualized lessons for the student and document what we did and our assessment
results.
TE 849 Methods for Teaching Children's and Adolescent Literature: Bevin Roue Fall '12
In TE 849 we focused on becoming familiar with a wide range of children’s texts and evaluating the
literature. We learned more in depth about the different ways for students to respond to text. We
studied an array various types of literature including the graphic novel, picture books, chapter
books, poetry, and film. I enjoyed the opportunity to read so many children’s books and learn how
to integrate them into my classroom as well as becoming familiar with well known children’s authors.
Link to Literacy Autobiography
Link to Multicultural Literacy Paper