5304 Contributions to My Learning and Learning Environment
Margie Mead | March 8, 2022
Throughout this program, I have found myself feeling overwhelmed and struggling to get started because of it. I am starting to realize that I am no longer struggling with this as much. I am finding more confidence in myself as a teacher and leader. Those two things have given me confidence in this program. My peer group in WhatsApp has become a lot tighter and has also given me more confidence. I am more willing to share my “raw” work and thoughts with them for feedforward. I am getting to be a lot better at receiving feedback from people. Criticism of my work or my actions has been hard for me my whole life. It is my fixed mindset that I am pretty excited about recognizing thanks to our ADL program. The ADL program could not have had better timing coming into my life. I am learning so much about myself and communicating with and understanding others. I always thought I was a fantastic communicator because of my empathy for others. Still, I am learning that empathy is part of what makes great leaders great at communicating. I have always known I lack confidence when speaking up about what I feel strongly about, but I am also learning through this program what I am genuinely passionate about, and that has given me a stronger voice and a yearning to learn more. I want to see a change in education for future teachers and learners. My biggest hope is education will be more efficient and engaging for all learners one day.
I enjoy working with my group and collaborating through WhatsApps. I paired up with Ashely Brandes by phone when we started the program. We text each other at any hour of the day and night. We also give each other moral support for our daily teaching jobs. My WhatsApp group consists of Alessa Berg, Taylor Burks, Desiree Masters, and Tyra Price. This group has been amazing and has given me so much more confidence in myself and my projects. Alessa asked if we could do a podcast, on blended learning with her for a class she is in that we will be taking soon. We had the best time talking about blended learning. I’m also collaborating with a group on Facebook and we have done a couple of zoom calls together. My Facebook group consists of Leslie Williams, Nicole Bright, Ashley Brandes, and Danielle Lopez. The Facebook group is ePortfolio focused, but we have found that we like having each other for feedforward and bouncing ideas off of each other. This group is important because my next WIG is going to be ePortfolios.
I have revised all of my assignments and reflected on the revisions. I continue to struggle with citations and formatting. I feel like I have figured out the citations and how to do them using google docs, and am focusing on in-text citations more. I completed all of the course readings, videos, and supporting resources. My assignments have never been turned in late. I contributed to my learning and the learning of my peers by participating in all activities and discussion posts. I submitted the Differentiated Leadership discussion post and my peer responses late. I posted in-depth discussion posts with research that supported my thinking and did so in a timely manner so that others could respond to my posts.
I feel like I am getting a better understanding of myself as a leader and a learner. With each class, I am getting stronger with WordPress. I understand what a plugin is and how to install them to make my site easier to navigate. It is still not anywhere close to being what I want, but I plan to spend a lot of time working (failing forward) on it this summer. I need more time to sit and work on it and teaching 4th grade and leading my 4th-grade team has put my website at the bottom of my whirlwind. I will work on it for 2-3 hours and feel good about it, and then four days will go by, and I forget what I learned. I started using Canva for this class to make my projects “pop” and it has been a lot of fun. I share my projects with my 4th graders for their feedforward on the design. If it pops to them, I know I’m on the right track!
My projects for 5304 are linked below. I am giving myself a 90 for this class.
Why am I doing this?
I’m an Influencer…in training!
Influencer Strategy.png –PART A
6 Influences.png –PART B
I’m gonna change the world!
Execution + Influence = CHANGE
Self Differentiated Leadership
***COMING SOON*** (like in 2 days)
Podcast with the best of the best: