What is "The Meta-Masters"?

Broadly speaking it is everything learned that is not part of the formal B'ham MA. To put it another way, how the experience of doing an MA has changed you as a person and as a teacher. The assumption (and bias) is that doing the MA will change you in some way.

For example there are simple technical lessons like discovering that I did not know that I did not know what a "maillist" was. I had an idea of a maillist but it was not what the MA CELS maillist was. In other words - to quote that great modern philosopher Homer - it was one of those "Doh!" moments and I have had many.

There are more complex lessons such as what a B'ham graduate once told me: To succeed you have to learn and accept humility. For all the reading, writing and (hopefully) learning there is the sometimes the disspiriting realization that - dare I say it - we may not know as much as we think (see above). The flip side of humility is confidence - understanding how much we know and being able to apply it (see extra-curricular activities below).

Think for a moment about humilty and confidence and note how they have changed from when you first started the MA program to today - particularly after 3 or 4 papers under your belt.

Another set of lessons can be found in doing extra-curricular activities such as getting involved in JALT or other professional groups, organizing study groups, mentoring fellow B'hammers etc. An obvious example is this web site and the MASH events connected to it.

Perhaps one of the more profound experiences for me has been a self-assessment as a learner and recognizing in myself many of the same characteristics in my students: motivation, error avoidance, saving face, language interference (old concepts interferring with new ones), self-confidence, confidence/doubt in the B'ham MA, and on and on.

These are some of the things I consider as part of my Meta-Masters and it is by no means exhaustive. I am posting this hoping there are others who have noted changes in themselves as a person and/or teacher and would like to share their experiences.

There is no "life experience" credit that accompanies your Meta-Masters - at least at B'ham, but the value of it can change your eventual degree from being just "a piece of paper" to something more personsonally significant.

So, what is your Meta-Masters? What are you taking from this program beyond the course requirements? What has moved you or is moving you? How does your life situation (i.e. middle-aged, married with kids) affect your Meta-Masters.

Share some of what you have learned while getting your word count down or up.