Collaboration? I did that!

This is the second round of courses and the end of my first semester in the ADL program. While I was brainstorming what I would write about throughout this assignment, I reflected on the incredible growth I have made this semester. Since I started Ed Tech Leadership last semester, it was a difficult transition for me. In my previous program, we had assignments due each week, with discussions and responses due on the same weekday each week.

I had a routine and thought I had everything figured out. Once I enrolled in the ADL program, there were not as many assignments due dates that were later in the term, I foolishly believed that the classes would be easier and less work; I truly underestimated everything about this program. In the first two courses, I waited until the last few weeks to get most of the work done because it did not seem like much work until I began. I was very stressed, overwhelmed and even needed an extension. I made those mistakes and completely changed how I approached our courses in this program. While transitioning between the first two courses of the semester and our current two courses, I had to analyze everything I did wrong and how I could adjust my work ethic and attitude because I was ready to quit. Once I developed a plan and decided that I wanted to see this degree through and achieve what I set out to do, I was in a much better headspace. I am grateful that course 5302 focused on achieving a growth mindset because I gained the critical knowledge, I needed to possess so I could reset. It was also helpful that these two classes ran concurrently because I used the knowledge I gained in 5302 to identify key components of being a successful influencer in 5304.

When I began 5302 and 5304, I was more comfortable with collaborating with my peers than I previously was. I learned that it is helpful to support and be supported by our peers. Each of these ladies has helped and supported me throughout this program. It was also important that a few of our group members overlapped in both classes. In my 5302 collaboration group, there was Maria Lopez, Valerie Regalado, Mikeela Pittman, and myself. The 5304 collaboration group contained Maria Lopez, Valerie Regalado, Lakesha Smith, and myself. Since many of us were taking the same courses concurrently, we were able to keep track of planning for both courses and remind one another of upcoming due dates. My groups and I communicated through the GroupMe app, and we have benefited from this greatly. Through our communication, we have shared links, exchanged feedforward, provided clarity on assignment instructions, and most importantly, we have encouraged each other to keep going. These ladies have been kind, motivating, and have truly inspired me to present my best self and my best work. Transitioning into a growth mindset has been critical for this aspect because I now welcome feedforward and am not intimidated by my peers’ work. Instead, I find inspiration in the work they produce and recognize that I can continue to evolve and elaborate on my findings as well. Collaboration is also impactful in incorporating change; we can take what we learn from one another and bring it to our school campuses and spread this knowledge across our schools, districts, and eventually states.

Lastly, for course 5302 I would give myself a grade of 87/100 and for course 5304 I would also give myself an 87/100. Although I made an incredible amount of improvement within these two courses, I still have a lot of growing to do. I was able to complete the readings and all videos this term and truly enjoyed delving into the literature and videos that were available.

The one thing I struggled with was getting my discussion posts completed in a timely manner. While I completed them in a better time frame than the last term, my intentions were to complete them weekly and not have to complete more than one at a time toward the end of the course. Even though I did not meet my goal this term, I still improved from last term because I did not have as many posts to catch up on by the end. Next semester I will be following a stricter schedule and utilizing my growth mindset to keep me encouraged and focused on my goals for this program. On a more positive note, I embraced feedforward from my instructors and peers on how to make my ePortfolio more user-friendly and understandable for my audience. In addition, I also contributed to my learning community by participating in group discussions, providing feedforward, and helping clear up misconceptions about assignments. In conclusion, I am delighted with the growth I have shown over the course of the semester, especially this term. Reflecting on how much I have grown over the past sixteen weeks has me eager to see where I will be and how I will engage in learning over the next eight months.