Contribution to My Learning Community

I can see the horizon! I am currently wrapping up the first two classes of my last semester. You can choose the accelerated pathway in the Applied Digital Learning program at Lamar University. If you choose this pathway, your course will be 8 weeks long. That means I take two classes for the first part of one semester and another two for the second half. I ONLY HAVE TWO CLASSES LEFT! This program has flown by and it is true that time indeed flies when you are having fun. These last 8 weeks have required me to grow as an educator and leader in my institution. I have become more comfortable with new technological innovations than ever. I also feel like I have grown my peer group ten-fold in these last couple of courses and that has helped me come out of my innovative shell and better collaborate with my peers. They have provided great feedforward along the way. Knowing that I am not in this journey alone is welcoming and to have people to put our heads together to problem solve has been inspiring. These ladies were with me through both courses, 5315 and 5317. 

In 5317, I was just as nervous going in as I was every other course. However, I was excited because I have always loved reading articles from educators and listening to educator podcasts. Just to know that other people are in the same boat as me is a relaxing thought. I have not ever imagined myself being one of these influencers though. Once my publication outline was put together and I received the feedforward from my peer group, I was even more excited to put my rough draft together. There were plenty of places that I would love to be published in that focus on advice from other educators on a variety of topics. My rough draft came together with ease. When you are writing about something you have an interest and passion for, the words just flow. I received the feedforward from my amazing team and then started working on our podcast. This was tricky but fun at the same time. I say tricky just because we are all busy working adults who have very different schedules so finding a time that we could all sit down to record in a quiet area was a task in itself but we got it done and edited. I think it came out great being that it was our first time recording. This is a podcast that I want to continue and think that it could be a great hobby to take up. Once the podcast was done, I worked on perfecting the final draft of my publication. When I read back on it, I cannot believe that I developed and wrote something so professional. I surprised myself! I will be continuing to write for publication as I found a great enjoyment in this. 

To be 100 percent transparent, when I noticed there was another literature review course 5315, I was shaking in my boots. I was so worried that I would not be able to develop the words for another literature review as we have already done one on my innovation project. However, I quickly changed my mind on that. Action research is so detailed and organized that there is plenty to delve into. Like I said, if you are writing about interests and passions, the words just flow. That was the same for this review of research. The outline helped tremendously to organize this literature review and I felt like this literature review went a lot better than my first as it was more organized because of the outline that I followed. It was also a breeze to develop my action research literature review because there is already an abundance of research on the topic I was focusing on but not in my specifications of fourth-grade math. Being that there was a lack of research on these specifications, it left the perfect opening for my action research plan. I collaborated with my team on every project in this course, as well participated in all of the discussions which helped tremendously to get an idea of the direction I needed to go with the next assignment. 

Both courses were great as well as the professors and my wonderful peers. I don't know what I would do without the feedforward I receive from my learning community. 

Overall, I would give myself a score of 95 in these two courses. I frequently collaborated with my peer group of Mistee, Samantha, Tosha, and Stephanie who were awesome. I also participated in all discussion posts and turned in all of my assignments on time. The only reason I dock myself 5 points is that I can be a bit rushed when completing some of my assignments. I am a busy mom and teacher and this gets the best of me at times. I cannot wait for the next two courses!

Action Research Experience

In 5315, we were tasked with engaging in action research. This was the first time I have ever performed action research so I was nervous going in. However, once I really understood what action research was and how it would benefit my innovation project, I was excited to get started. I feel this plan will help the flow and organization of my innovation project.

Before I started my plan, I had no real idea of how I was going to measure the success of my innovation project. I knew that I would perform observations, look at their work, and test scores but not really sure of how or what specific details to look at. After putting together my action research outline, the waters began to clear and I felt more confident in my abilities to accurately conduct the action research and measurement on achievement and growth when implementing project-based learning in my classroom.

Once my outline was done, I began to work on gathering research for my literature review. It was then that I realized what areas needed more research and how I needed to focus this plan. The review of literature taught me that there has not been much research at all on the implementation of project-based learning in the upper-elementary math classroom. This is the specific focus that I am aiming my research on.

In the end, I developed a detailed action research plan that entails all of the measurement tools that I will use to gather and analyze data. I feel that this detailed plan will give me the best and most precise results to effectively measure the growth and achievement of my students after implementing project-based learning in my fourth-grade math classroom. I am excited to get started and carry out this action research to that I can spread the word to the key influencers in my institution of the benefits of my innovation project. I know that we will see leaps and bounds of success.

Final Compilation 5317

As an educator, I have always loved reading articles and watching podcasts featuring other educators. Their expertise and advice are valuable to me and teach me so much. I love hearing stories that I can relate to and it helps me realize that I am not alone in many of my feelings and situations. Although I have read many, I never would have imagined publishing my own article but here I am doing just that and I love it just as much as I do reading them. To offer other teachers my thoughts and interests is such a rewarding experience. 

When I began writing the outline for my article, I was nervous. I had no idea how I was going to do it, or what I would write about, and I felt like I was in over my head. I had never written an article, let alone submitted it for publishing. Honestly, I did not even know that articles could be submitted for publishing. I never really thought about it but assumed that writers just worked for the particular website. However, once I got started I quickly fell in love with writing. 

Writing my rough draft was a breeze. The outline helped me take out all of the obstacles I may have encountered without it. The feedforward I received from my rough draft was helpful and I feel like it truly molded my article into a professionally written article. I fell in love with writing and influencing with this project. 

When I realized that I was going to be tasked with making a podcast or long discussion video, my nerves got the best of me. Again, I always loved watching and listening to other podcasts and videos but never imagined myself creating one. I knew that I needed to reach out to my team for this project. When we put our heads together and formed the script it all came together with ease. I won't say that we didn't have a few errors or mistakes but after I edited them out using iMovie it sounded great. This was the first time any of us had ever made a podcast so I think we did pretty amazing. I love the friendly feel that the podcast gives. Listening back to it, it sounds like my teacher friends and I collaborating and chit-chatting. Each person also gave an article pitch that would make me want to go read their article if I hadn’t already read each one. This was a fun project that I plan on continuing, so much so that I just bought myself a podcast microphone and tripod setup. Take a listen to InnovatED Podcast to hear us in action. 

In the end, I believe my final article, Microschools for the 21st Century Learner, is well-written and can interest other educators out there who are looking for an area of change. Microschools are not commonly spoken about so not many teachers know about them. When forming the outline for my article I spoke with several of my close teacher friends and they had no idea what a microschool was. When I explained it to them, they were full of interest and questions. They wanted to learn more and even played around with the idea of us starting one together. This was my goal. To get teachers thinking about how we can innovate to create change for the better in the education system. After reading the articles, Roger Schank on Invisible Learning, and Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools by Roger Schank, it solidified my belief that microschools could be a solution for the obstacles faced by educators. Students learn best through cognitive processes and these processes are best taught through one-on-one instruction (Schank, 2020). Microschools can open the door to this flexibility. To get a better understanding of this type of learning and what it entails, check out my latest article, A New Way of Learning. 

References

Education Futures LLC. (2011, September 15). Roger Schank on Invisible Learning. Educationfutures.com. https://educationfutures.com/blog/post/roger-schank-invisible-learning

Schank, R. (2020). Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools | Roger Schank. Roger Schank. https://www.rogerschank.com/teaching-minds-how-cognitive-science-can-save-our-schools