October 7, 2024
As I progress through the ADL program, I am truly becoming more of a learner. I commented in the Contribution to My Learning and Learning Community for the Summer 2024 session that enrolling in a graduate program was one of the scariest decisions that I had made in the past few years. As I begin each session with new classes, I experience a bit of anxiety in not knowing what to expect. Not only do I have my ADL classes to handle, but I have also joined the UDL cohort through the intermediate unit that oversees the schools in my county. I also continue to advise and direct the drama club and non-musical productions at my school as well as serve on the PBIS committee for my school. All this is on top of teaching a full course schedule in the English department at my school.
The ADL program continues to open opportunities for me to explore how to learn and for me to teach my students how to learn. I continue thinking about how I can change my classroom and my pedagogy to help my students become the auto didacts that they will need to be in the future.
I believe I have earned a 95/100 for EDLD 5313 and a 95/100 for EDLD 5303. I have met the deadlines that were set throughout the term. I have attended all the scheduled class meetings and have reached out to my professors for additional input and critique. For 5303, I set up Zoom sessions for my group to complete our weekly Collaborative Discussions and communicate face to face utilizing the power of the internet and live interactions. We also agreed to have a running Google Doc to assist in our discussions.
As I continue growing as a learner I am still learning to balance my coursework with all my other responsibilities, which have seemed to grow exponentially since summer session. There are still times when everything gets so overwhelming, I just want it to go away. In this respect, I relied on the support of my wife, my colleagues here at home, and the members of my learning group especially Steve Munoz, Thaddeus Komorowski, Andrea Bonneau, and N'Mika Browning. These classmates were instrumental in helping me review my work, identify errors, and offer support. The students in my learning group are much like me. We seemed to suffer the same confusion and have the same questions at points in the courses. We worked together to solve our problems, provide feed-forward and feedback and were often each others’ cheerleaders. The GroupMe chat group provided easy access to others in our classes, so we could pose questions and respond quickly. We would discuss the outcome of our assignments and discuss ways to improve on them. Thaddeus Komorowski has been a tremendous asset as a member of my learning group. As a career and technology teacher, he has experience in developing e-portfolios and was a great resource as I continued developing my e-portfolio.
As a seasoned teacher, I believe there are certain activities that I have developed a skill in. It was that belief that did not work for me. I believed that my writing has improved since the beginning of my journey through the ADL program. Dr. Johnson kept me honest with her critiques of the format of my reference lists throughout the course and taught me to be more careful in the development of my references. Dr. Johnson and Dr. Grogan's feedback and guidance have been instrumental in helping me become a better learner. The use of our assignments as assessments for learning has been a true learning experience for me. 0I have learned that there is always room for improvement and that the small things do matter if I am to become a better learner. In adding to my previous work in 5302 and 5305- my Innovation Proposal, Literature Review, and Implementation Outline, Learning Manifesto, Growth Mindset Plan, Annotated Bibliography, and the Communicating and Connecting My Innovation Plan documents, I have completed my Response to a New Culture of Learning, Learning Philosophy, Aligning Outcomes, Assessments, and Activities which includes my 3 column table, and my
The learning aspect of the work of the program has been challenging. I began the ADL program as my teaching school year was ending, and so things were very hectic for about two weeks. This term has been no less hectic as it began as my fall semester at the same time this term began. Where I did not read all of the assigned readings during the summer session, I made sure to allot enough time this term to finish all the readings as to have a much better understanding of the content of class discussions and assignments. It is my belief that I have improved as a learner during this term and that I will continue to improve as a learner and a digital leader as my journey through the program continues.
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