5317 Compilation
I really enjoyed the publication and writing process in this course. Not only was it exciting to see all the hard work I put into research and development of my innovation plan come together with a real world assignment like this, especially since being able to say you are a published scholar looks great on a resume. Throughout this course I have seen my ideas and thoughts change shape and the difference between my publication outline to my final draft is significant. Thanks to the peer review process I outlined above, I can honestly look at my article with pride and know that I have shared a little part of my heart with a community that is full of passionate hard working people. Creating the media project to drum up publicity and make people not only want to read about resources that I found integral to trying out and adopting a blended learning approach in my own classroom. I am really creating something that is worthwhile and my innovation plan is actually taking shape and growing into a movement that I believe I can use to make real, valuable changes in education.
I am grateful for the lessons and opportunities that were gained from this course even if it made me want to pull my hair out at times when I was feeling unsure of myself and getting too into my head. The lessons I learned from this course extend beyond formal education and have truly built up my self-confidence in my knowledge and experiences as a teacher. I am starting to feel more comfortable with taking leadership and becoming a role model for other educators whereas I used to shy away from any attention like that.
Preparing to publish for the first time is a big deal. This experience was important and it all started with choosing the correct topic to write about. I did not originally choose correctly when I initially wrote my publication draft and it was obvious it was lacking my passion and personality. I was able to reevaluate my work and found that what I was actually passionate about was more of a background point and not the focal point as it should be, so I made some changes and rewrote much of my article in my final draft. I am happy I made that choice because this piece is something that I am very happy with and I know that I will be able to expand on this in my future endeavors and use this experience and publication to boost my innovation into a strong movement that many educators will be able to get behind and push to new heights. My biggest take away from this experience has been to intentionally focus on what is most important and ignore the other "stuff" even if it seems that is what other's are pushing you towards. I would rather represent my own passions well than write about any one else's poorly.
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I write about my peer review process experience extensively here, but I gained valuable insight into how to edit my article to make it flow better for my audience. I was able to see first hand just how differently my article was perceived by my audience based on their own classroom experiences and even personal backgrounds and previous careers. I was able to create a stronger final draft by the end of the peer review process because of this and the clarity of my writing and vision came into focus. I dreaded the peer review process when I first heard about it, but honestly, I wish there was time for another round of peer review.
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