Picture Credit: Media Courtesy of WIX.
What a whirlwind start to the school year. With new TEKS, a new team, and taking on a new role as a team leader at work there was already an unease in how I would balance it all. I added in commitments to my daughter's soccer team as team mom, sponsoring Student Council, and co-sponsoring Harry Potter Club just to up the ante and prove to the world how insane I can be. I had a plan of how I would complete all this while maintaining my sanity, but I ended up catching COVID the first three weeks of school. As the saying goes "when it rains it pours", but what can you do other than try your best and work hard? I did work hard and catch back up despite everything, however, the old adage that "everything that can go wrong, does" can best be used to describe how the first half of fall semester went for me.
For the first two weeks of class, I was pretty MIA due to being sick. In fact, the first week of class I was so sick reading and processing anything I was reading was just not possible. Then the second week of classes I was so busy getting caught up at work from being out that I had no time to fully devote myself to my classes. That weekend I started catching up and devoted the whole weekend to simply catching up - big shout out to my amazing husband for cooking and keeping all of us alive. At this point things were looking up for me and I started contributing to the discussions in both 5318 and 5389 more timely and my connections to the content were much more thoughtful. I was having great conversations with my peers and I feel that something very powerful was created by replying to each other and bolstering each others' ideas. I think projects in both classes were strengthened as ideas were shared and built upon. I have always enjoyed the discussions during my time at Lamar in the ADL program, but something felt different about this time. I felt a greater sense of comradery and hope even in the darkest of times, when I felt that I wasn't going to make it out of the trenches. I can't explain what exactly shifted, but instead of fear about how my discussion response would be taken, I looked forward to hearing about what my peers thought about my ideas and thoughts. I felt empowered and supported in a way that I don't think I have ever felt within an online community or course.
Through the replies on discussion boards, especially those in 5318 I was able to return the feedback favor and offer some suggestions or extensions that my peers could use to strengthen their professional learning courses. In this feedback process I was also able to gain a more objective view of my blended learning units, which I then used to look over my work with a fine tooth comb to improve my own work. Through this feedback process on the discussion boards, I created a blended learning unit that was received excitedly by my colleagues. I was able to perfect and revise my units by adding components that I had originally overlooked, which greatly improved the usability of my course.
5389 brought me immense joy because I felt that I could finally do something creative and impactful to the changes I want to see on my campus. I enjoyed being able to foster my creativity to bring fun and meaning into professional learning again. I am tired of PD sessions that just check the boxes, but don't give me the time or confidence to actually implement the ideas into my class. So much valuable information is lost simply because I can't remember the details by the end of it because I was given so much broad spectrum information in a 45 minute block of time. I came up with the idea to host a party that would encourage staff to think about this professional learning as something positive and completely different. I think this stroke of genius actually came to me during a really boring PD session that I can't even remember what it was about because I noticed the glazed over eyes and over it expressions on every teachers face at that meeting. I recognized it and thought "I never want to see someone make that face at one of my trainings or meetings. I want them to be excited". This course has made me reflect on a lot of my experiences within my district and on my campus. I made a few suggestions and I am very excited that it seemed like some of them were immediately implemented in meetings on campus and within the district.
Despite my initial struggle this semester, I never missed a deadline in either of my classes or at work. I gave my all in my posts, discussions, and projects within these courses. I am so proud of the work I have done. The pages I produced this semester for these courses have been so much more cohesive, clean, and deeply connected to my implementation goals I outlined in the beginning compared to those that I created at the beginning. My web pages have taken on a different quality over time and I feel this has allowed the reader to become more immersed in my ideas and passion, creating an excitement for blended learning that reading a plain article would not be able to convey.
These two courses were so interesting and impactful to my overall innovation plan that I actually lost track of where one class ended and the other began. It felt so natural to be completing each component and I could see how they tied into the big picture so well it was hard to keep them separated. I wanted to write a book on all the ways what I was doing was going to fit into my plan, so I made sure to link my work, add blog posts that were relevant to the bottom, and tell my audience how it all tied into my plan. At this point in the program I am seeing my plan from the beginning take shape and take on a life of its own. I know that I will continue working on this well into the future and this will not stop with the conclusion of the program. This program, and these courses in particular have allowed me to create something that I am passionate about achieving and have given me clear goals that I will be working towards for the rest of my career.
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