Margie Mae

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property OMAPI_Elementor_Widget::$base is deprecated in /home1/qfipfbmy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/optinmonster/OMAPI/Elementor/Widget.php on line 41

Deprecated: stripos(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($haystack) of type string is deprecated in /home1/qfipfbmy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/bluehost-wordpress-plugin/vendor/newfold-labs/wp-module-ecommerce/bootstrap.php on line 82

Warning: Undefined array key "host" in /home1/qfipfbmy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/bluehost-wordpress-plugin/inc/YoastAI.php on line 54

Failing Forward with Blended Learning....

My innovation project is blended learning with station rotations. It began to evolve when I hit a bump in the road during the planning phase in EDLD 5305 when I created my Implementation Plan. I didn’t know how to implement station rotations without an engaging online learning platform. Click the link below to see the road map of my learning and the projects I created in each course.

Blended Learning Project Revolution....

As I began the ADL program Summer of 2021, I was impressed with the efficiency of how information is delivered to me as a learner. We were given a lot of material and requirements but only a little direction (hand-holding). I realized that my whole life, I have learned differently than what society believed were best practices. I learn best when failing forward. As I created my ePortfolio for my master’s program, I wanted to quit (or hire someone to build it for me), but I didn’t because I saw the benefits of failing forward. Getting to choose what my website would look like, how I was going to build it, and what platform I would use gave me a massive sense of accomplishment. I believe giving learners choices on how they learn, what they learn, where they learn, and when they learn empowers lifelong learners.

I developed a plan based on my research for my literature review and created an implementation plan. For my plan to be successful, I will need to influence change in behavior on my campus, so I created a plan to execute my goals with my team.

For my team to be successful with this plan, I needed to provide them with opportunities to grow and learn while treating them like professionals. Therefore, I created an alternative professional learning course for my team to successfully implement the first six weeks reading course in a reading classroom. I truly felt in my element with these projects. The full professional learning plan and the August PD course I created for teachers with COVA and CSLE in mind. This course outline is for professional development before school starts. I gave teachers a lot of choices on when and where to get a lot of their learning done so they could free up their time to be in their classrooms before the first day of school with kids. The course modeled what teaching their students using the COVA approach for the first 4-6 weeks of a reading block. As I created the PD course, this is where my wheels started spinning about my next innovation plan.

I am currently at a standstill with my original innovation plan. My district is currently trying to get on the same page after adopting a new ELAR curriculum that is difficult to follow and doesn’t go with what the state expects of the learner. My campus was rated 10 points lower than the other five elementary schools in our district by TEA, so my campus came up with goals. One of them is increased parent communication. I am working with my 4th-grade students this year to goal set and track their progress using the material I created in EDLD 5318. Parents will get the link to their child’s digital pages I created in this program. I created student tracking sheets (see below) and a way for students to have more choices during reading and peer conferencing for goal setting and accountability. My students last year were successful with tracking their progress and sharing with parents. For the most part, all students are doing well with it this year. I have had to scale back, though, and focus on one piece at a time. Students are currently working on goal setting for reading stamina, tracking their progress at least once a week, and entering their pre and post-test scores for reading and math. I am finding it difficult to keep up with all 22 students and ensure they have entered their data. My wheels are constantly turning on this project because I feel passionate about learners being in charge of their learning. The sooner they figure this out, the better!

Creating professional learning courses for teachers, digital tracking sheets (that will eventually be part of their ePortfolio), and videos that promote my innovations are what I am most proud of. I remember at the beginning of the course when Dr. Sue said we needed to choose a path for the program but not to worry if we changed our plan. She said some of us would change our path. I still have my innovation plan for station rotations in my toolkit, but I found more passion for professional learning for professionals using the COVA + CSLE approach. I plan to use my professional learning for professionals video I created in 5389 and the course outline to promote and communicate my innovation project. The professional learning program I created is tied to teaching teachers how to implement student ownership in reading the first six weeks of every school year. I learned that I enjoy creating things that help teachers be more efficient and cannot wait to get better at making videos for education. I enjoyed creating the following video to pitch to my administration for a change in how teachers are trained. As well as the podcasts I made with my learning communities. I love how naturally and easily we all spoke about our passion for blended learning.

Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t change anything about how I grew as a professional throughout this program. I believe I failed forward perfectly because I found more passion in my next innovation project that evolved from my original project. The ADL program showed me that I have more to give to education and reach more learners, but I cannot do that if I am in the classroom.