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ADL Journey Visual Representation
As I began this educational journey, I did not know what to expect. I was filled with anxiety because I had been out of a learning environment for so long that I didn’t know if I could measure up.
I found an educational concept that would give me the freedom to explore and create in my own way.
Each course in the program builds on the next course, and it takes you on a journey of personal and professional
discovery. The course pieces fit together to form a body of digital learning that prepares you for the
technological and learning advances of the 21 st Century. As a result of my participation in the ADL program, I feel confident that I have the tools to assert myself as a leader, and life-long learner, in the educational community.
I understand the importance of using the COVA approach and blended learning models. We have the power to create winning learning environments where learners have the freedom to create and imagine in ways that we have not seen before. I feel great about what is to come; the best is just around the corner.
Capstone: Synthesis of Digital Learning
Success in leading technological change in your learning environment is directly related to how well you and your organization are prepared. By embracing technological innovations as opportunities rather than challenges, students will proactively use those changes as catalysts to enhance their organization’s learning environments. This course has you create a proposal to present to your school district or organization. Then we researched multiple sources and completed a literature review showcasing the benefits of our proposal. Once those were given and written, we created an implementation outline to lay out a timeline on how our plan would take effect and how long each step would take. This disruptive innovation is so important because of the doors that open in a learning journey. So much more information can be accessed, and experiences become vaster. It is much easier to personalize the way information is presented to learners.
As I progress through this program, I found myself applying the growth mindset more and more. I used to be a student who grew up in a teacher-centered environment. But now, I explore the possibility of a new studying approach. A growth mindset allows me to achieve my goals and desires or expand on my talents. I started to believe that both weeklies, intense practice, and hard work can be improved. When we have a growth mindset, we advance to the next level and closer to the ability to successfully launch our innovation ideas- in my case, is implementing blended learning in Special education units at my school district.
The course helped me develop multiple plans and strategies for getting my innovation plan up and running. First, I put together my why statement, which led me to create two plans to implement our initiative. The influencer strategy and the 4DX model. Both will help me get my blended learning plan and function well. Dr. Grogan held us to a high standard and expected us to meet that mark.
Explore the theories of constructivist epistemology used to create student-centered learning environments. By applying constructivist techniques, students create active and engaging learning environments that utilize technology, increase motivation for learning, and engage the learner. Dr. Still was the instructor for this course, and she used the COVA approach to learning. I came up with a new culture of learning and my own personal philosophy on what I am thinking about learning. Also, I created two ways to address lessons that are student focused 3 column table & UBD. And last, what the growth mindset does inside CSLE by creating a learners mindset.
The goal of Developing Effective Professional Learning is to implement, model, and promote appropriate choices and to create activities in the lessons that engage the learner through a collaborative multi-directional environment between teachers and administrators.
Transitioning from professional development to professional learning reminds me of the COVA Model structure. I seek information to enrich my learning, and I try to create meaningful things for my career. The same can be said about professional learning. If teachers find meaning and relevance to their learning, they will embrace it more. Having that ongoing support with this endeavor is critical. It is beneficial to have that support and offers teachers a learning network within their school. This network can showcase ideas, strategies, lessons, successes, and frustrations a teacher may experience. First, we put together a why, what, and how to project on a professional learning statement, which led us to develop an outline to show how we will change professional learning. Then we put together the first session of our new professional learning by creating BHAGS, outlines, 3 columns or UBD tables, and what resources will be needed.
This course was all about us writing for possible publication of work. The course had us develop an outline that lays out plans and strategies for how we would write an article for future publication. The article would have to be about something that could connect to our innovation plan, which we first developed in 5305. Finally, after all, was said and done, we created the final written publication to the specifications of the website we would submit to.
My innovation plan and action research plan elaborate on the same topic- implementing blended learning models at Elementary schools for Special Education units. This course, EDLD 5315 taught me the importance of performing action research in education. Research is concerned with generating
knowledge and typically creating knowledge related to a concept, idea, phenomenon, or topic. Action research generates knowledge around inquiry in practical educational contexts. Action research allows educators to learn to develop personally or professionally through their actions. Action research enables teachers to reflect on their practice to improve it, become more autonomous in professional
judgment, create a more energetic and dynamic environment for teaching and learning, articulate and build their craft knowledge, and recognize and appreciate their expertise
Innovation plan update
The beginning
It is always challenging to start something new. Before starting my Master’s Degree at Lamar University, I could not believe that each individual in a work environment could create a positive shift in a working system to improve it. But right after taking 5304 and 5305 courses, I realized that making a change is possible- it is just a matter of time. If you want something to happen, you need to get started by taking that first small step, scary though it may be.
Current Innovation Plan Status
I have had an opportunity to explore and build solid steps to address the inevitable resistance to change when implementing blended learning models in Special Education units in Garland ISD, teeming with digital learning opportunities for students. It will require courage, persistence, and all stakeholders’ give and take. However, I am confident that with my innovation plan, our staff and students will reap the benefits of the innovation to transform our Special Education units. One of the critical elements for a change is my Influencer strategy. The Influencer model allowed me to reevaluate my desired result and identify vital behaviors that must take place for us to succeed with the innovation plan. The Six Sources of Influence proved to be a powerful model that required us to analyze our personal, social, and structural environments.
Another crucial element for me was introducing with COVA approach. As I progress through this program, I found myself applying the growth mindset more and more. I used to be a student who grew up in a teacher-centered environment. But now, I explore the possibility of a new studying approach. A growth mindset allows me to achieve my goals and desires or expand on my talents. I believed that both weeklies, intense practice, and hard work could be improved. When we have a growth mindset, we advance to the next level and get closer to the ability to successfully launch our innovation ideas- in my case, implementing blended learning in Special education units at my school district.
My goal is to provide my students with meaningful learning environments by implementing the concepts of choice, ownership, voice, and authentic learning experiences. The next progression in this course was the COVA learning approach. This newfound freedom was a bit scary, but after applying COVA approaches to my students- I realized it is a great way to encourage creativity in a learning journey. I can honestly say that I am feeling much more comfortable taking charge of my learning and implementing the COVA method at this point in my life.
I have already organized a few meetings with my school principal, Special Education department representatives, and some Special Education teachers about the possibility of implementing blended learning models. Therefore, I did not get the enthusiasm I counted on from my colleagues. We discussed variants of suitable blended learning models for Special Education units, and we agreed to start a pilot project only with my unit after New Year to try it for four months. We decided to meet again at the end of the school year to discuss the result.
What Worked, What Could I do Better, and What Would I Have Done Differently?
Two main factors for my ADL journey are collaboration and fostering my growth mindset.
It may seem like a no-brainer, but actual brainstorming is impossible without collaboration. Collaboration provides a safety net; it helps you catapult your thinking and develop ideas that may seem crazy initially. I am grateful for the constant support from my classmates on Groupme chat. It has become a wonderful learning community for me. Being a member of this learning community means engaging in joint learning activities, soaking in innovative ideas, and sharing perspectives and experiences to understand the information. Learning happens through discussion, reflection, collaborative teamwork, and, most importantly, taking the initiative and responsibility to listen, question, and think critically within the community of my classmates.
As an educator, we’re constantly looking for strategies you can implement with our class to help foster positive outcomes for your students. We’re genuinely dedicated to helping students discover their true potential. That means we’re willing to try everything from assigning readings that can introduce them to new experiences to activities that really get them out of their comfort zones. A growth mindset, Dweck asserts, empowers people to believe they can develop their abilities — brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and resilience essential for accomplishment in almost any sphere.
Dweck’s research has shown that it’s possible to teach students how to develop a growth mindset – as a result, student engagement and performance can markedly improve. To further understand why a growth mindset can impact students’ performance, it’s essential to consider the related aspects of how our brains actually work. For example, this semester, I started implementing the ST Math platform to give my students access to engaging, personalized instruction and encourage them to become fearless problem solvers. Through ST Math, students learn what Carol Dweck calls the power of YET. They are developing the understanding that getting something wrong is not a “no,” but instead is a “not yet.” When students do the hard thinking work, learning happens. It is not “fixed,” but it can be refined, expanded upon, and connected to new thoughts and ideas.
But besides that, there is always room for improvement.
Marie Forleo once said, “Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally; it comes from what you do consistently.” This doesn’t come as a surprise, however. Many of us know that consistent actions will provide the results we’re looking for in life. Even so…we still struggle with consistency! Consistency doesn’t have to be all or nothing. We don’t need to start ten habits at once. Instead, consistency is looking back and seeing the accumulation of the consistent actions you’ve taken over time. For instance, walking for 30 minutes every day for a month will eventually become a habit.
Future Plans
If it’s one thing I’ve learned throughout this journey is that there is always something else I’ll want to try or change. Personal growth can be challenging and tedious, and it often feels easier to push it back to another time rather than face it head-on. As we introduce alternative behavior patterns into our daily lives, we’re likely to experience difficult periods as our previously tried-and-tested ways of behaving are replaced with fresh approaches. Relearning new habits and skills can be like a personal battleground where the retreat is seen as the best line of defense. As I reflect back, there could not have been a better program to prepare me for all the changes to come. I became really a big fan of the COVA approach and blended learning. Both of these components give students flexibility, which is crucial for students with special needs. Well-designed, well-supported blended learning classrooms can play an essential role in filling missing gaps in students' learning achievements. Special needs students can acquire this achievement gap through developing quality blended learning programs. Implementing quality blended programs increases educators’ availability to meet individual students’ needs and allows for a more tailored and successful learning experience for students. Therefore it is essential that more research needs to be done, and more resources need to be targeted with construction, implementing, training, and acquiring blended learning teaching principles into the classroom in order to benefit students with special needs deficits and mainly target those students with exceptionalities.
C.O.V.A. Reflection
I have had a long journey with education with different approaches from three other countries. I had my Bachelor's degree in Engineering in Russia. This was done with an old-school approach - lots of handwriting lectures, studying with books, and using digital devices only for learning engineering software in a limited time. After that education, I had excellent theoretical knowledge, but it wasn't enough to implement in real-life work situations.
Years later, I decided to pursue my education with a Master's degree in Real Estate Investment at a Latvian university. This experience was different since the program focused on real job projects and broadened my horizons to international markets.
I have never seen myself as an educator. Most of the time, I had some jobs in typical office-related environments. But I changed my mind about it. After moving to the States, finding a professional position in the job market was challenging. I was advised by friends to become a substitute teacher. This position introduced me to the American educational system. Surprisingly, I found a passion for teaching and felt comfortable mentoring my students. That is why I decided to become a teacher. It is my third year of teaching, and I am still exploring this new world of education.
My recent educational experience with a Master's degree at Lamar University has changed my opinion about how a learning process should proceed. It happened when Dr. Hurapnick introduced me to a new concept of learning - the COVA approach. I remember that at the begging, I was baffled about how I should perform my learning. Dr. Haruipnik gave me the freedom to choose the direction of my innovative plan, and it was not an easy task. It took me a couple of months to get used to the idea that I m the one who is in charge of my learning, and I am the one who can make that significant change in my school district by promoting my innovation plan - implementing blended learning models in special education units.
Research-based evidence from foremost educational thinkers supports what I believe about what matters: creating significant learning environments and giving learners opportunities to engage in authentic learning that involves choice, ownership, and voice in the outcome.
What I have found beginning to work is giving learners a choice of how to prove their learning within certain constraints, boundaries, and guidelines. This allows learners to express themselves in a way that offers individual voice, ownership, and accountability to learn the required content; it is a mixture of keeping true to what the standards require in a personalized and meaningful way.
In my current special education behavior classroom at Routh Roach Elementary, I have students from different grades, with most performing academically at a lower grade level. Currently, teachers struggle to provide direct instruction to students on current academic content and fill in previous years' academic gaps. I decided to implement a blended learning model in special education classrooms at my school district to solve this issue in my innovation plan.
I propose to create this change in my special education classroom is to implement a blended learning model that thrives on change, integrates play, focuses on "learning through engagement within the world" (Thomas & Brown, 2011), and establishes boundaries. Allowing students to learn at their own pace and their own way through collaborations is where significant learning occurs.
Learning ownership is key to meaningful and authentic learning. It is human nature to take more pride in what is personally attached to our name than being told what the facts are and how the learning outcome should be so a test can be passed.
I suggested that responsible teaching recognize the following principles:
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Encourage active learning. People need to learn by doing wherever possible rather than simply hearing or reading about how to do it.
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Allow people to have some control over their own learning.
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Build connections between what is being learned and learners' experiences, moving over time toward more complex ideas.
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Encourage collaboration and conversation between learners.
The more I proceeded with my Lamar master's degree, the more I got involved with the COVA approach. Every subject in this program allowed me to practice my learning skills based on the COVA approach. I believe that learners thrive when they can exercise choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning, as the COVA approach advocates. Students would have a real-life model of using their learning skills—giving kids choice, ownership, voice, and authentic learning experiences over lectures and practice problems. I believe CSLE + COVA is the best combination for learning and learning how to learn.
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EDLD 5302 Concepts of Educational Technology: emphasizes how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can enhance the teaching and learning experience and enable students to lead digital learning. As I progress through this program, I found myself applying the growth mindset more and more. I used to be a student who grew up in a teacher-centered environment. Dr. Harapnuik was the instructor for this course, and once again, he used the COVA approach to learning. The course focused more on the growth mindset and a learning manifesto. Besides practicing the growth mindset model in my Educational Technology class, I intend to apply the concepts learned in those classes to my teaching assignments. This is something I will model, use, and demonstrate to my students.
EDLD 5303 Applying Educational Technology ePortfolio: This course focused on us building out our ePprtfolio. Dr. Bedard was the instructor. This course is one of the foundational classes in the ADL program, so it became essential to dig into the ePortfolio and make it your own. ePortfolios support more engaging and motivating students because they are study-led projects. If you believe that students have a choice, you are more interested in understanding the subject and are therefore motivated to try harder. ePortfolios enable students to control their learning and encourage more profound knowledge by connecting their know-how to different contexts
EDLD 5304 Leading Organization Change: The course helped me develop multiple plans and strategies for getting my innovation plan up and running. First, I put together my why statement, which led me to create two plans to implement our initiative. The influencer strategy and the 4DX model. Both will help me get my blended learning plan and function well. Dr. Grogan held us to a high standard and expected us to meet that mark.
EDLD 5305 Disruptive Technology in Education: Success in leading technological change in your learning environment is directly related to how well you and your organizations are prepared. By embracing technological innovations as opportunities rather than challenges, students will proactively use those changes as catalysts to enhance their organization’s learning environments. This course has you create a proposal to present to your school district or organization. Then we researched multiple sources and completed a literature review showcasing the benefits of our proposal. Once those were given and written, we created an implementation outline to lay out a timeline on how our plan would take effect and how long each step would take. This disruptive innovation is so important because of the doors that open in a learning journey. So much more information can be accessed, and experiences become vaster. It is much easier to personalize the way information is presented to learners.
EDLD 5313 Creating Significant Learning Environments: Explore the theories of constructivist epistemology used to create student-centered learning environments. By applying constructivist techniques, students create active and engaging learning environments that utilize technology, increase motivation for learning, and engage the learner. Dr. Still was the instructor for this course, and she used the COVA approach to learning. I came up with a new culture of learning and my own personal philosophy on what I am thinking about learning. Also, I created two ways to address lessons that are student focused 3 column table & UBD. And last, what the growth mindset does inside CSLE by creating a learners mindset.
EDLD 5315 Assess Digital Learning: Overcome the common misconception that abstract concepts such as learning are immeasurable. Using practical measurement solutions, professional educators learn to quantify and assess student learning in digital learning environments. We had to create an Action research outline to get our ideas on paper, so we had a direction to go in once that was done. We needed to edit and revise the literature review we created several classes ago. Finally, we put it all together into a cohesive strategy. To create a roadmap for carrying out the research study and increasing both teacher participation in training and student participation in the classroom, whether virtual or face-to-face, an outline, a literature review, and an action research plan have been developed.
EDLD 5317 Resources Digital Environments: This course was all about us writing for possible publication of work. The course had us develop an outline that lays out plans and strategies for how we would write an article for future publication. The article would have to be about something that could connect to our innovation plan, which we first developed in 5305. Finally, after all, was said and done, we created the final written publication to the specifications of the website we would submit to.
EDLD 5389 Develop Effective Professional Learning: The goal of Developing Effective Professional Learning is to implement, model, and promote appropriate choices and to create activities in the lessons that engage the learner through a collaborative multi-directional environment between teachers and administrators.
Transitioning from professional development to professional learning reminds me of the COVA Model structure. I seek information to enrich my learning, and I try to create meaningful things for my career. The same can be said about professional learning. If teachers find meaning and relevance to their learning, they will embrace it more. Having that ongoing support with this endeavor is critical. It is beneficial to have that support and offers teachers a learning network within their school. This network can showcase ideas, strategies, lessons, successes, and frustrations a teacher may experience. First, we put together a why, what, and how to project on a professional learning statement, which led us to develop an outline to show how we will change professional learning. Then we put together the first session of our new professional learning by creating BHAGS, outlines, 3 columns or UBD tables, and what resources will be needed.
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References:
Harapnuik, D. (2019, March). Research that supports the CSLE+COVA Framework. Harapnuik.org. Retrieved September 11, 2022, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=7079
Harapnuik, D. (n.d.). CSLE+COVA. Harapnuik.org. Retrieved September 11, 2022, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6988
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace