WGU Master's in Elementary Education - Progress Thread

[nykorn]

I am moving through this degree pretty fast despite not already being a teacher, paraeducator, etc so thought I would write about how I am doing here.


The WGU Master's in Elementary Education for Licensure (this license is valid for kindergarten through 8th grade) is what looks like around 20 normal courses + around 6 courses directly related to internship, classroom observation, student teaching or portfolio, totalling at 51 CPUs for the entire degree. On top of that, as additional rules for state licensure, you need to pass what is essentially a state GED test at the k-12 level, do an internship (may take 3 months to find placement, and is usually not possible to find in the summer months), get fingerprinted background checks, etc. All of this red tape means that even if you finish the actual WGU courses super fast it is almost impossible to graduate for licensure in just 1 term - especially if the schools are on summer vacation during any part of your term. 2 terms is doable by anyone however.

Why did I choose WGU? I actually contacted several schools and teacher licensing agencies, as I already had a Bachelor's degree. WGU was by far the cheapest and easiest option. Two companies had quoted me at around $20,000 to get a state license. I went to the local school district office to ask about how to get licensed in person - they refused to even glance at the resume I brought. After I submitted proof I was going to WGU though they offered me a job right away (see below!).

In the month between registration, acceptance, and term start:

• Created and studied Anki deck made from Quizlet flashcards on each course subject. I used this addon: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1362209126
  
• Got basic Complio background check (required for student teaching) through WGU.
  
• Filled out as much of the info on the OSPI e-certification (state teacher license) website and other places required for student teaching as possible.
  
• Applied for jobs at local school district. As I had no official WGU enrollment letter yet I attached a background check proving I did through WGU.
  
• Applied for contract work managing exchange students, which requires a state license to do. The idea is to boost my CV with some form of licensed child-related work.
  

WGU study technique:

• Use Chrome addon to speed up videos to 2x or more. Read subtitles. (Sound + text is more effective for your brain).
  
• Add unknown stuff to Anki as I read the course material. Include images. Review Anki in the bath, before bed, etc. but WGU is the priority, not Anki cards.
  
• Do all reading as fast as possible. Do all assignments only after having done all the reading. Take the test only after having done all the assignments and getting caught up on Anki for that course.
  
• When WGU is vague on a person, event, philosophy, etc I google for additional info.
  

1st Term start: March 1st 2024.

• Course 1) March 1 - Started Foundations of Education (2 CPUs), Read 5 of 5 (5/5) reading units.
  
• 2) March 2 (Sat) - Submitted 3/3 assignments. Started Educational Psychology & Human Development (4 CPUs), Read unit 1/5. This course is said to be tough for many people because it has a lot of various philosophies about learning, some of which are named similarly or counterintuitively.
  
• March 3 (Sun)  - Read units 3/5.
  
• March 4 - Read units 5/5. Had to order table clamp for webcam for the proctored tests so postponed the exam. Resubmitted 2/2 assignments. Foundations of Education marked as complete.
  
• March 5 - Submitted 2/2 assignments for Educational Psychology. Got emergency substitute teacher license & paraeducator license offer from school I applied at a few weeks before starting at WGU, they specifically mentioned WGU in their Email.
  
• 3) March 6 - Started “Schools as Communities of Care” (2 CPU), read units 2/5.
  
• March 7 - Read 5/5 units. Tried to register for first proctored exam, no open time slots that day.
  
• March 8 - Resubmitted 1 assignment. Spent whole day trying to figure out why I was only getting error 400 messages from the proctoring service, the “ID verification” page wasn’t loading, the test page claimed my login info was wrong when it wasn't, etc. Couldn’t start test.
  
• March 9 (Sat) - Submitted 5/5 assignments. Took & passed proctored Educational Psychology & Human Development test (something like 50-70 questions, it took me 15-20min). Educational Psychology marked complete. Emailed mentor asking for more courses to be approved & unlocked.
  
• March 10 (Sun) - Resubmitted 1 assignment. Completed full application & passed test for the exchange student work.
  
• 4) March 11 - Mentor unlocked next course in late afternoon. Started Essential Practices for Supporting Diverse Learners (3 CPU). Read 1/7 units. This course is said to be hard for many students because it contains a bunch of terminology to learn including specific court case or law names. Contains a sort of proctored assignment where you teach inside a virtual reality classroom (looks like Second Life or The Sims) with student characters played by actors who respond in real-time. However you are not graded on your teaching, instead you are just supposed to use as self-reflection and are graded on your self-reflection. Someone put up a video of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHWKpdR8Se4
  

I will continue the timeline after more time passes!

From these first 10 days I learned:

• Averaged out, 1 CPU per day is doable for me.
  
• The "forgetting curve" is serious. It is easier to pass a course by going through all the reading material in 1 day than it is to spread out the reading and assignments over a week and pass it.
  
• If you just have say 3 courses to do in your last term, the pricing changes from $4,000 for 6 months to a pay-per-course plan so you pay less than $4,000.
  
• So far all revisions are because I missed something simple in the assignments (like it says “list 2 examples” and I forgot to list the 2nd one).
  
• WGU assignment evaluators/graders work on weekends, but mentors (the ones in control of unlocking your next courses) do not.
  
  
• I will need to study math in my free time to pass the state exams. I took my last math course in 2008 and never used it since then, so when I previewed the state exam I realized I’ve forgotten even basic math terms like “integer” and stuff like how to calculate exponents or multiply fractions with whole numbers.
  
• WGU is like the university version of trade school. In normal university you learn a bunch of stuff related to the subject which doesn’t necessarily help you at work nor reflect real-life usage. All the stuff you learn at WGU (or trade school) is directly tied to what you need to know to do the job, to get the license, to understand what your coworkers are saying, or to be seen GOOD at your job. I have already seen “teacher slang” phrases WGU has taught me on TikToks by high schoolers and teachers that appear on Facebook, and law names (referred to by the short name only) on school webpages in the fine print, for example. I suppose someone fresh out of high school would already know some of these but to me it’s almost like the whole school system including the terminology for everything and every type of student, has changed since 2008.
  
• If you just read the material, and make Anki cards as you go, you will easily pass. WGU makes assignments no stress. I don’t dread assignments, tests, or checking feedback to see what I need to revise.
  

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Advice I got from WGU:

• Sandwich longer courses in between shorter courses, as that statistically has the best results for completion speed and motivation. So your first term should look like (2 CPU) (4 CPU) (2 CPU).
  
• When you get interview assignments, try to use them to interview the principal or administrative staff at the school you want an internship at. This gets your face known to the staff and they are more likely to welcome you for an internship.
  
• (This info is fuzzy) When you do digital fingerprinting, which btw is appointment only and costs around $80, tell them to print out 3 copies of your fingerprints in case something goes wrong - sometimes they take your fingerprints then forget to send them where they should. You need them sent to 1) OSPI (board of education), 2) the state background check department, 3) the school you are getting the license at. While WGU itself accepts bg checks done via paper fingerprint cards, the local school I got offered a license at only accepts digital fingerprinting.
  
• A Bachelor’s of Education is often treated as equal weight to a Master’s in the hiring process, and when it’s not then a Master’s has more weight. So if you already have a Bachelor’s in something else, just get the Master’s despite that it is almost impossible to get grants or scholarships for a Master’s whereas you can essentially get a Bachelor’s for free.
  
• WGU is not really meant for you to get two teaching degrees unless the second degree is a more specific one (like school management for becoming a principal) which you can’t get a state endorsement for. Instead they recommend you just get one degree then get any endorsements via state tests.
  
  

General advice:

• If you are unsure of what teaching degree to get, Early Childhood Education is in most demand in this field worldwide, and the Elementary Education Master's is one of the WGU Education degrees with the easiest admissions requirements.
  
• The license itself is valid for your state plus can be used in several US states via reciprocity laws, but can also be used to teach abroad on US military bases and in IB schools or other “American/English schools” abroad which follow a US curriculum or US hiring requirements. Many countries let you easily get a local teacher’s license by just taking a few more classes plus a language proficiency test. If you want to live abroad, especially in Asia, you will typically get a higher salary than a local teaching job - plus end up eligible for US military benefits - if you take a military base job.
  
• If you can get a position while still studying at WGU, a substitute teacher license is a great way to get actual teaching experience, but a paraeducator (aka teacher's assistant) license is a way to do unofficial classroom observations. You supposedly get a much better idea of how the school all works together and how each subject is taught if you do paraeducating. Note that paraeducating is usually minimum wage and only requires high school graduation to get, substitute teaching requires a degree and pays a few more dollars per hour (but, in my district, still less than a school bus driver gets paid).
  

I will post a continuation after another 10 days or so pass!