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As our Journey comes to an end...
Let’s remember the journey we started about twenty months ago. I had thought about it for several years but this mom had Girl Scouts, then 4-H meetings, football games, basketball games, cheerleading competitions, along with all kinds of livestock, pigs, calves, and lots of goats there was just no time. Then all at once, my four kiddos graduated and one of them started her masters program. I may be a little competitive, but if she has a masters then I need a masters. I started one month later. She finished in May, here I am on my last adventure of the journey.
Our first class was 5302 and we were introduced to Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset. I fell in love with this. I told everyone I knew about this and Growth Mindset was the first topic that I decided that I needed to share with the rest of Illinois Computer Educators - ICE. I presented at a statewide conference for the first time. In my professional information for my ePortfolio I wrote - “A reevaluation of my reason for becoming a teacher in the first place and the fact that my degree and certificates do not reflect the work I have done with technology pushed me to Lamar University in Digital Learning and Leading. Master's program. And truthfully - they had me at "Growth Mindset!".
In 5303 we started a professional portfolio. What we would soon find out we the place to add all of our work, our thoughts, and our collection of “goodies” for the future. I was not a regular blogger but I find myself now thinking, I should document that. I will write a blog post. I don’t know how many read it but I write it anyway. I also have used the pronoun we instead of I. I think that is was in the second class of the program that Dr. Harapnuik told us to make connections. Find a group and discuss. We did. Melissa, Brooke, Taylor and I meet on Facebook messenger and these three ladies have been there to push and sometimes pull me through the times I struggled. I talk about them to so much that they now are household names. The craziest thing is that a man from Canada that heads a program at a Texas University got four ladies together everyday. These ladies are from Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Texas and Illinois.
Our Group's Reflection
EDLD 5305 - Innovation plan - what? I had no idea. How about this? We are using the COVA rules and thoughts but I did have Dr. Harapnuik on speed dial for a few weeks. He kept pulling more and more of my thoughts. He said “let’s clarify your thoughts.” My original innovation plan was written but there was a lot of clarification still to come.
With the foundation set, we moved into learning environments, learning research and professional learning.
John Kotter said “Start with the heart” (Kotter, 2013). And the next step of the journey began. I am a jump in to it head first and sort out the problems later.
In EDLD 5304 we learned strategies for organizational change. With 4DX and the Influencer models we spelled out the changes we would make and how to be prepared for “the battle that lie ahead.” This course slowed my jump in head first thinking. I prepared a plan for my change. This course also brought the book Crucial Conversations. A book that I have read more than once and truthfully need to read it many more times. I did enjoy being challenged to change the way I go into a conversation. I still need work but great food for thought.
My favorite book of all the program was A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. This book finally connected my need to teach technology but not for technology sake. The connections of new learning culture to on-line games and technology gave validity for my desire to help students connect their school learning with the enjoyment of everywhere else. This is where my innovation plan started to evolve into an actual plan. I knew how I learned best and could use the things I wanted other to know and work from there.
And since I feel like I repeat Simon Sinek’s Start with your Why words in every decision I make lately, I really liked using the UbD framework. Understanding By Design - identify results (the why), determine results and plan instruction. With these gears snapped into place a beautiful design started to come into focus.
We did survive the literature reviews and the action research plan and I am thankful for the opportunity to learn and experience to process I did find out that this is not My Why. I want to be in the classroom, I want to be with the students. I did enjoy the process of writing with the intent to be published. I have not reached that goal Yet- but I feel like I got a great step in the right direction for this to happen.
Professional learning,
I think that was my favorite part of this entire program. I enjoy the challenge of teaching teachers and adults and the excitement of seeing their learning just as much as my students. I have planned several presentations and best update since last ICE conference design don’t decorate. My slide show was just that a show. I learned to stand out and use all five key principles when planning a professional development session.
The last thing I want to reflect on was my digital citizenship class. Although not my favorite class, I think that I learned and retained the most knowledge in this single class. I teach littles about technology everyday and I tell them to be safe online and show the cute videos about cyber security. During EDLD 5316 I learned that I needed to share so much more with my littles and my cohorts. The difference between a good citizen and a good digital citizen are very few. They run quite parallel. We also looked at ways to ways to take charge of our digital footprint, a lesson that can not be said enough. Cyberbullying is also a lesson that needs repeated. Week 3 Copyright and Copywrongs – The Long Arm of the Law, I have a library certification and I still had little knowledge of copyright laws. I was sharing the content of this course with my superintendent and he told me how he thought most everything we used as a district was illegal. I shared with him the things that I had studied and that with a few tweaks to our online classroom content we were within the law. I was excited to share the knowledge that I had gained from that class.
Dear Diary - Final thoughts - Thank you Lamar University for the time we have spent together. My program took longer than I had expected and I was disappointed with that but the education and the depth of knowledge were worth the Lamar choice. Thank you Dr. Harapnuik for helping me continue to clarify my ideas. I needed it. Thank you Melissa, Taylor and Brooke for the laughs, pats on the back and the encouragement. You guys gave me the strength to sit inside all day on a beautiful Saturday and finish the task at hand. Thank you to my husband for retreating to the garage so that I could spend the day at the table talking myself through the lessons and an extra special thank you to my littles. My 5th and 6th graders (my guinea pigs), they got to experience new things I learned and things I wanted to try. They had great feedback whether I asked for it or not. THEY ARE MY WHY!
At this writing I will stay in my same district. I have added 3rd and 4th grade to my computer skills classes. I will continue to learn and build and fill my digital tool belt so that when an opportunity knocks I will be knocking back.
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Kotter, J. John Kotter Leading Change: Establish a Sense of Urgency. (2013, August 15). - YouTube. Retrieved January 24, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yfrj2Y9IlI
McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. New York, NY: Free Press.
Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2012). Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Simon Sinek | Speaker | TED. Retrieved May 14, 2019, from https://www.ted.com/speakers/simon_sinek.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace.
