This spring was my first semester in the ADL program. I took the six week 5302 Concepts of Educational Technology and 5305 Disruptive Innovation in Technology courses. There was definitely a learning curve in these courses due to the nature of the program and the freedom I had as a learner.
At first I struggled to get started with my assignments because there was so much freedom to choose something I was passionate about, that I froze from fear of choosing the wrong thing and failing. As I progressed through the growth mindset and COVA coursework I realized that failure is inevitable and this is where the most learning takes place and playing it safe would not help me at all. As I worked through the two courses this spring I started to notice that the things I was learning in one course was bleeding over to the other and vice versa. The growth mindset in 5302 became a cornerstone in my innovation plan in 5305.
As a learner I feel that I did a great job participating in all discussions. I posted on time and often went back to reply to my peers. I attended most class lessons, but I did have some conflicts with my school meetings for a travel program I am co-sponsoring that prevented me from making it to every single class meeting. I read and watched all the course materials and I read most of both the books that were recommended in the course. I will be honest about liking Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools because there were some great examples of how innovation works and I really liked the comparison of education to those of fast food companies' innovations. I reviewed others' work and offered suggestions throughout both courses I took this spring, which I found to be very helpful in editing my own work.
As I reflect on this spring I notice some areas that I definitely need to do better in, but I have also experienced a lot of personal growth as a student, so I am happy with the progress I have made in this program overall. I have noticed that I am a stronger teacher and peer to my coworkers because I have been pushed out of my comfort zone by this program and did some great work that I was really proud of. As a result, I was able to give a PD session on projects creating GIFs that I have been doing in my own classroom for a while, but never had the courage to share much about it. The session was a hit and I grew a lot as a professional with this experience. The 5302 course changed my professional trajectory so much in just six weeks and I can honestly say I gave 110% to this course.
Now, moving forward I need to be more careful with my time and energy. I was doing great throughout the first four weeks of this program, but I fell apart at the end due to my mother being hospitalized for a week and my daughter getting a severe injury from a school accident that. I never got the chance to truly fix the mistakes I made in my literature review, despite having great feedback, because I mentally couldn't face it, which is disappointing to me because I should have focused more on "yet" and my growth mindset than running from my failure just because I had a lot going on. I know I am better than this, but I just gave up a little and fell into some old bad habits. At the very end I missed a deadline to turn in my reflections because I wrote the wrong date down and didn't devote enough time to my studies because I was not utilizing my growth mindset strategies and went into my typical procrastination and avoidance patterns. I could also use more work on becoming a student leader in our student discussion and core groups, because I am actually pretty shy and I don't like to initiate, but I love to participate and support others.
Commenti