It’s that time of year again. Time to wrap presents, wrap up the year, reflect and prepare to move forward. I can certainly say that following this crazy year, it has to all get better. Right?! I know one thing for sure: I am growing as a student and innovator. Looking back, I am proud of all I have accomplished. Throughout the Lamar University M.Ed. Digital Learning and Leading Program, I have had to intentionally reflect on my learning and the growth I have had through this program is remarkable.
Implications for the Future
Establishing my beliefs in My Learning Manifesto allowed me to spend time thinking about my story and reflecting. There is power in the growth mindset and being pushed to create a Growth Mindset Plan has proved to be incredibly powerful. I took a break in between courses due to getting married, moving to Dallas and life becoming crazy. However, I had created my Growth Mindset Plan right before taking the break from the program. It was crazy how inspiring and motivating it was, even while I was not enrolled in the program.
I can truly say that the plan I created has effectively encouraged me to “pursue specific technologies to become an expert in” and “become active on Twitter”. In the past year, I have received my Google Classroom Level 1 and 2 badges, became a Flipgrid Ambassador and have felt so much more comfortable jumping in and learning about new technologies. I have been given the opportunity to participate in a district-wide presentation, and made great connections with other leaders working in educational technology.
I am deeply grateful for the push to grow prior to COVID taking over the world. Twitter provided more than just connections to other great ideas, but also a community to experience teaching through COVID with. The community was a great place to come to for ideas, perspective, and support. I am very grateful for my Growth Mindset plan pushing me to reach out and make connections.
Through Twitter and my push to grow in understanding specific educational technologies, I also was able to learn more about other Professional Learning Networks to join. I feel like I have become a resource for my school regarding educational technologies.
Especially at the beginning of the 2020 school year, I was helping lead teacher educations and troubleshooting technology difficulties with administration. I have moved from only supporting myself and my students to now being able to support other teachers and their students through the knowledge and connections I have developed. As a result of this program, my students have been supported in finding a love for learning because I have found my love for learning.
The power of developing a Growth Mindset plan has officially been revealed to me. I plan to consistently create Growth Mindset plans throughout the rest of my career in educational leadership. The growth I have found since creating one has been exponential.
I believe the mindset has been helpful not only for myself and my learning, but also my students and their learning as well. I have seen how setting goals and thinking with a growth mindset has improved my personal growth as an educator. It has taken me from being a decent teacher to a teacher that is actively growing. I can see a difference in the way students think about themselves and their learning. I am excited to lead and be an example to others with my learning.
I believe I now know how to innovate, grow, and learn for myself. I look forward to seeing all the ways I grow as a leader in the next year with the Digital Learning & Leading (DL&L) program. I know I need to grow in becoming more realistic with what I can include in my Growth Mindset plan. However, after setting several goals, I can see how helpful it is to have written goals.
Consuming vs. Contributing
One of my biggest appreciations of the ePortfolio is how it allows us to create content to share with others. Because the ePortfolio is my own, I feel much more comfortable creating and contributing content for myself than I have previously. In the past if someone had given me the task to write a blog post about my learning, I would’ve spent many hours stressing, and trying to do exactly what the teacher wanted me to do.
Now with the ePortfolio, I feel free to share with the world. Several recent posts have been about Digital Badging, Student Check-Ins, and Classroom Poster Ideas. Everyone who joins my site is able to read about ways I feel I have been able to utilize technology to support my students in becoming successful lifelong learners. With my ePortfolio, I feel like I am truly contributing.
Utilizing Twitter to share ideas and learn ideas has become an integral way I learn from others. I also feel like I am contributing when I retweet, comment on, and share others’ ideas with other coworkers and educators.
I have had the opportunity to feed my need for learning. Consuming knowledge is a valuable part of the cycle of learning. Through all of the opportunities I have had to read, connect, and reflect, I know I am growing as an educator.
My Professional Learning Network
In the past semester, these nine resources have proved to be incredibly helpful. I am thankful I have established connections within all of them.
Facebook Groups
I have had a Facebook page since I was a freshman in high school and I recently have learned how valuable it is to have a PLN to troubleshoot, share and learn new ideas for teaching. The school I started working at in August 2020 just recently adopted G Suite for Education- Enterprise Edition. So being able to ask questions, troubleshoot and learn more in PLNs has been so helpful.
The G Suite Teachers Group been an integral part of providing tech support for myself and others at my school. We recently adopted G Suite for Education Enterprise and it has come with a lot of questions about organization and best practices for usage. The G Suite Teachers Group has really done a great job of providing a community for growth, learning, and collaborating. I can always jump on the page and find some fun, exciting, and engaging materials for my class.
Flipgrid Student Voice Ambassador Group
You may have already read my praises for Flipgrid in my recent post about student voice. If not, you can read it here. But, wow! I love Flipgrid and all of the fun ways they allow students to display their learning. My kids always happily jump into any assignment with Flipgrid because it allows them to create. I cannot recommend Flipgrid more. If you haven’t checked it out yet, please click here to sign up for a FREE account.
Nearpod has proven to be a great way to share interactive presentations for virtual and in-person students simultaneously. Joining the Nearpod Educators’ Facebook page has provided me with the resources needed to stay actively excited about the tool through new ideas and tech support.
I would like to work towards the various Google Educator Certifications because it would be very useful knowledge to have. My students have Chromebooks and I would love to know more about how to best utilize them. I currently use GoogleSlides for easy presentations of lessons that include a lot of graphics or for when I have a sub (I just put it on a USB Flashdrive and plug it into the TV). I also have organized all of my teaching activities into Google Drive.
International Society for Technology in Education
I am now an ISTE member! The year of 2020 has proven to be a year full of challenges and perseverance. However, leaning into good quality resources makes life as a teacher much more do-able. ISTE hosts excellent technology conferences and provides educators with useful knowledge for successfully implementing technology.
Texas Computer Education Association
I hope to become a member at TCEA as I learn more and develop as an educator in the DLL program. I will work to attend a TCEA conference in the future. I know I will learn more about all that TCEA has to offer as I develop in the DLL program at Lamar University.
Central Texas Council for Teachers of Mathematics
I have attended and presented at local CTCTM meetings and had great take-aways. It is a great resource for Central Texas teachers. CTCTM hosts a spring and fall conference. Both have good raffle prizes, excellent sessions, and there always is an impressive keynote speaker. Previous keynote speakers include Cathey Seeley and Cathy Yenka.
National Council for Teachers of Mathematics
I am going to attend NCTM’s CAMT in July of 2019. NCTM published many great books, including Principals to Actions, Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades 6-8, and Mathematics Formative Assessment 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning. NCTM also publishes informative journals which target math concepts for specific grade ranges. They are filled with useful, fun activities, as well as research.
Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy
The Institute does an excellent job of putting on an international conference and fostering relationships between professionals involved in all industries. I delivered a presentation over my action research from my senior year at Baylor. I researched meaning and purpose in the math classroom. The conference allowed me to develop relationships with great people and receive insightful feedback. I look forward to working towards publishing my research.
Emerging Issues
In my course work, it is interesting how I have seen issues that have come up and how they are rooted in one consistent issue. In education, it appears we consistently pour money into technology, but don’t truly improve education. We struggle to effectively give students ownership, control, and choice over their learning. If we were to do so, they would absolutely develop a powerful voice. Through my innovation plan, I have addressed specifically how we can disruptively innovate learning in education through blended learning.
Jumping into creating an innovation plan and learning about disruptive innovations really helped me understand how to really make a difference with technology. The distinction really helped me understand how to best implement an innovation plan. Having the opportunity to write an Innovation Proposal lit a fire in me to create opportunities for improvement. The experience I am going through at my school is going to be a great learning opportunity for all involved.
The entire Innovation plan experience encouraged me to utilize various Digital Tools in order to explain, plan, and encourage others to join me. With the creation of my Innovation Plan Video, I saw just how helpful and effective creating digital content can be. It was really interesting to invest time into research with my Literature Review and it proved to be helpful as I wrote my Innovation Plan. Spending time in research solidified and supported my understanding of how to best be successful with an Innovation Plan. I have realized that if I can back it all up in research, everyone will take it seriously.
We must act soon to best support students who are entering the world of technology. As an educator, I feel like I am equipped to begin the process of taking my innovation plan to my classroom and eventually to other classrooms across my school. Hopefully I can support other educators as they work to implement blended learning in their classrooms. I look forward to continuing to learn, grow, and collaborate with others on how to best serve our students’ learning and growth with technology.
APA Citations
Advancing Teaching and Learning with Technology in Education. (2019). Retrieved July 3, 2019, from https://tcea.org/
CENTRAL TEXAS COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF MATHEMATICS. (2019, April 6). Retrieved from https://ctctm.weebly.com/
Google For Education. (n.d.). Retrieved July 3, 2019, from https://edu.google.com/teacher/Home. (2019).
Retrieved July 3, 2019, from https://www.atpe.org/en/HomeHome. (2019).
Retrieved July 3, 2019, from https://shakeuplearning.com/Index. (2019).
Retrieved July 3, 2019, from https://www.nctm.org/Lutz, M. M. (2019, May 07).
Ms. Meredith Lutz (@MsMeredithLutz1). Retrieved from https://twitter.com/MsMeredithLutz1
Texas Council of Teachers of Mathematics: Promoting Mathematics Education in Texas. (n.d.). Retrieved July 3, 2019, from http://tctmonline.org/
Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy. (n.d.). Retrieved July 3, 2019, from http://www.viktorfranklinstitute.org/Home.html
Education with Meaning 