The Expedition of a Lifetime

36 hours…It is truly amazing what a person can accomplish in 36 hours.

-Jennifer Bloodworth

Returning to school as a student for the first time in nearly a decade was quite possibly one of the greatest challenges I have faced as a teacher. The Digital Learning and Leading program relied on authentic experiences as the basis of every assignment. From beginning to end, the project I worked on was mine. My instructors and classmates helped me develop a plan to disrupt the current flow and renew our excitement about the possibilities that technology brings to the classroom today! Reflecting on the process has lead to some fantastic realizations about how each course in this program broadened my scope and forced me to innovate in the ongoing mission to bring the best practices to my classroom and ultimately, my district!

This course reminded me of the importance of embracing new things. Our minds can convince us of so many things; why not make sure it convinces of of positive things! In completing this course, I revisited my own mindset and the reasons that I decided to pursue a career in education. While completing the learning activities, I incorporated the Growth Mindset in my own classroom with my students. The environmental shift was truly amazing! I also began designing my eportfolio. Documenting my work and continuing to revisit the development throughout the duration of the program has now provided me with a showcase of what I am excited about in educational technology.

While I have created and maintained websites in my career, none have ever been solely focused on work that I am completing in an effort to revolutionize education. In this course, I was able to explore different platforms for housing my work as I completed it. This eportfolio is a great and simple way to share with my classmates and colleagues to help them understand what I am working on and toward. Having the time to dedicate to finding the right platform for my needs was paramount in the success of documenting my project.

Anyone in education is well aware that change is not only imminent, but will most likely come when it is least convenient! Disrupting the norm can be a great challenge if you are not in a place where it is accepted. While working through this course, I realized how fortunate I am to work at a campus where innovation is praised! Changing things up does not always mean out with the old, however. While working on my innovation initiative, I also wanted to keep the best parts of real teaching. Technology is not a replacement for a teacher, but rather a resource to help enrich education! In developing my project to integrate Blended Learning Stations into my classroom, I was able to give students the best of both worlds and make the two work harmoniously!

Leading a change is not an easy task. There will always be resistance to overcome. While working through this course, I formulated a plan to combat resistance that included speaking to people, not statistics and working with people, not evaluating them. Being willing to change something means we have to buy in. We really have to believe it is what is best or we will not try. We are human! By speaking to people’s hearts, one is more likely to be successful in changing the norms. I also know that people are willing to explore new things when it is a low risk environment with support! My plan includes me supporting and coaching other educators, not evaluating them. I want to provide an extra hand and support the growth of my district. I never want my colleagues to feel that I am there to evaluate them in the use of technology. We are less likely to accept guidance when we feel like we are being judged. By eliminating that issue, teachers have the freedom to explore!

Creating Signification Learning Environments

Creating a significant learning environment involves using appropriate content, practices, and the physical environment! In my classroom, we know that learning does not occur if we are uncomfortable. Once we feel comfortable, we can begin to look at the content and weave lessons that incorporate a safe place to learn where all learners take risks and strive for growth. The significance of learning is highly dependent on the significance of the environment!

Digital learning is not limited to our area here in the United States. Learning has grown in so many ways and now we can incorporate global implications into our curriculum. We are able to connect with others from all over the world! As an educator, it opens doors to new opportunities to learn from colleagues. For the students, we are able to look at trends as it applies to the use of technology and see what is working and what is not. It is not only a time saver, but it allows educators to progress in their practice at a much faster rate! This course allowed me to research the trends that apply to my project and avoid currently known issues!

Designing instruction can be such a fun experience! Sometimes we design so much that we lose sight of the end goal. In this course, we focused in on a single driving question to make sure that we were focusing on the end result. While the instruction can take many forms, we must be working toward something! We have to have focus. We also have to have a way to measure the success or failure of any plan. Through research and collaboration, I narrowed my focus down to determining to what extent math scores would increase as a result of the new way of presenting content.

This program has been completely online, so this course was near and dear to me! For any learner to be successful online, the design of learning must be carefully planned and executed. We do not want our learners to become so overwhelmed trying to navigate the online classroom that they miss out on the important things. I found that I liked Schoology immensely when compared to Google Classroom. I was able to design a class that I actually teach, using the materials I teach with so that I can use it in the coming years! Online teaching and learning sounds like a breeze, but it is anything but!

Saying professional development to an educator is often like cussing at them. Too often, PD is geared toward an entirety instead of an individual or small group. We do not believe that is good practice for teaching kids so why are we doing that to the adults? Professional development should be individualized for each learner. Our needs must be met so that we can be the most effective in the classroom. I was able to devise a PD schedule that respected the time of teachers and gave them the information they needed to have. In addition, my plan included follow up and support for the classroom when implementing the new learning! Teaching is teaching! Do it well all the time, not just for kids!

Sharing our knowledge with others is a great way to network, share ideas, and learn about things! In this course, we developed an article to publish in a professional avenue that would help explain the project we were working on throughout this program. The article could be shared with our colleagues world wide and begin conversations that help guide us as we progress as well as serve others. Blog posting is by far my favorite type of writing because it is more personalized, relaxed, and conversational! I am a little bit of a talker.

Behaving as a good digital citizen is critical in the world today. We must give credit when it is due, and we must be vigilant in following the law. In this course, we explored copyright laws, fair use allowances, and learned that it is always best to err on the side of caution. By reminding us of how we must behave online, we are more cognizant of our the behavior of our students. We want to promote good digital citizenship as much as we do any other moral behavior we expect of our citizens.

That’s a wrap, folks! I am finally at the culmination of my project and of graduate school! I am thrilled to be finished and even more excited to continue exploring ways to effectively and efficiently integrate technology in to instruction with the goal of providing the very best learning experiences for students. This course has been a chance to wrap everything up together, evaluate my progress, and reestablish goals for the next phase of my innovation plan.