Contribution to Learning and the Learning Community (EDLD 5318 and EDLD 5389)

Former Group Members (who I continued to collaborate with): Eboni Mitchell, Anna Akuretiya, Christopher Aebig,

ADL Graduates in my District: John High, Evan Dolan

Current Collaborative Members: Desiree Masters, Elda Mancha, Kristen Sabbatini, Erika Montroy

Finishing up my ADL journey at Lamar University with these final two courses is bittersweet. On one hand, I look forward to having more time with my family, as my wife and I welcomed a second daughter to our family this past February making balancing work, coaching, graduate school, and family time more challenging than ever. On the other hand, I will miss the thinking this program has encouraged me to do and the time spent collaborating these courses provided me with. Finishing this program is simply a formality, as I am certain I will continue to interact with all aspects of my innovation plan and everything that I was exposed to within this program. The main reason for this is the authenticity that was introduced. As I have mentioned before, this is my second master’s degree in education. When I think back to my first program, I have trouble remembering what was discussed and what we focused on. It was the “sit and get” that we have talked about so often. Ineffective unfortunately.

My last two courses, EDLD 5315 and EDLD 5320, were certainly different as far as their intentions. They were an interesting combination of courses to take as EDLD 5315 focused on action research, something I am very fond of, while EDLD 5320 looked at the wrap-up component of the ADL program. Although different by definition, they both were based on one core value, reflection. The ability to reflect is one of the most important traits an educator can possess. Each day as we drive home from school, it is inevitable, we reflect. We think about what went right, what went wrong, what would we do differently next time? The stream of questions is continuous, but what we do with the reflection is key. EDLD 5315’s reflection component, for my purpose, was largely based on the reworked literature review assignment. Not only did I have to reflect on my original literature review created at the beginning of my ADL journey, but I reflected on the research surrounding my innovation plan of blended learning, accumulating information that would impact my next steps.

As I mentioned in my EDLD 5320 innovation plan update, my timeline changed a bit for the implementation of my innovation plan with some unforeseen circumstances taking place within my building, however, although not ideal, I believe this will have a positive impact on my blended learning initiative in the grand scheme of things. Similar to the past numerous semesters, I consistently collaborated with my groupmates, particularly via text message for this semester. We had a group chat that we relied heavily on to provide one another with feedback in more of an immediate/intimate manner in comparison to the class discussion boards. While I do believe I could have been more communicative in the discussion boards, I think I was able to get out of having a closer-knit group that knew one another well.

With this being my final two courses, I also spent a lot of time working with two of my colleagues who recently completed this program last semester (see above). We had some real conversations about how we, as a group, could implement some of the ideas from the ADL program on a larger scale to our organization. Our focus was around CSLE+COVA, of which we even have had some discussions with administration to make them familiar with some of the ideologies.

Dr. H has said consistently throughout this program that “life happens,” and I have now found myself saying this to my students on occasion. It is the truth. Taking 6 graduation level courses is not an easy task with a family and a job. While my focus may have swayed at times throughout these classes, I am proud of my effort and growth and feel confident that I got the best out of not only these classes, but this program. For this semester, I believe I deserve a 90/100 for my contributions to my learning and learning community. Watching all class recordings prevented some of the collaboration that I would have preferred and my responses on discussion boards could have encouraged more conversation, but my efforts within my group and with my peers showed my commitment to the courses.