As an educator, I have always thought of ways to make learning fun and engaging for my students. As an instructional coach, I realized the same goes for our teachers. There is always buy-in when it comes to implementing new ideas. The goal of education is to create lifelong learners.
This connects to my vision of creating lifelong INDEPENDENT learners. I want students to have fun while learning and remember these experiences to fuel their love for learning. What’s better than supporting teachers in their journey through Blended Learning models? My innovation plan supports my vision, but I did have to learn to focus on the learning and the learners and not the technology.
Through much reading and researching as well as amazing feed-FORWARD I was able to understand that blended learning is not new, but it is rather important how it is implemented in the classroom. That is where the focus of my initiative is.
How do we even begin? I was reminded of what is possible through a children’s book I have read to my own children as well as past students in order to inspire them. What Do You Do With An Idea by Kobi Yamada. It is still a work in progress for me, but my innovation plan will be unfolding from Idea to Reality.
Connecting each piece makes much more sense now. I began with a proposal letter and then moved on to a literature review (this one was a challenge for me – read about my experience). Establishing an implementation outline was also challenging as I was losing focus of my vision while trying to have all the “right parts” added. After much feed-forward, I think I have it figured out. Finally, the promotional video works to intrigue viewers.
Now to address the blogging challenge...thinking back on my school age years, I remember really enjoying expressing myself through writing but that stopped after some time. During this course, I was introduced to blogging and it took me a while to know where to start. I think I have done okay with my blog posts to best interpret my experiences through my courses this summer. My goal is to get better at posting more often and add more to my posts such as links for information or helpful graphics and videos.
Overall, a growth mindset has been a message well received during the summer courses. We talk about this to our students every day but how often do we (adults/teachers) consider how important it is for our own growth? I am excited to learn more about my own growth mindset as I continue future courses and hope to post a blog update based on what I have learned.
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