In October 2023, I had the opportunity to continue my Masters journey with Lamar University for my 5th and 6th course in the Applied Digital Learning Program. The courses I took this 8-week term included Creating a Significant Learning Environment and Developing Effective Professional Learning. In the course on Creating A Significant Learning Environment I was able to dig deep into the new culture of learning. I did this by creating templates of alignments, outcomes, and assessments for my professional learning course and creating my learning philosophy. In the course on professional learning, I created an 8 week professional learning course on critical literacy and the integration of technology and differentiation.
Self-Reflection: Creating a Significant Learning Environment
Score: 90/100
As we look at our students in our classroom, we need to get to know who they are, what they are passionate about, and what enhances their motivation to learn (Thomas and Brown, 2011). Throughout my life, there has never been a moment that I was not learning something or wanting to learn something. There are some things that take me longer to fluently understand, and grasp. One thing that I could continue to work on is time management in writing and literacy tasks. There is a process that I must take to get these tasks finished, and it does take me longer to get these tasks done then what it should. I can not always see what my concentration will be like the days following the current day, and this gets me in a bind when completing assignments successfully. On the other hand, in the end I was able to create many discussions with my peers and professors and leave comments on my peers’ post. I was able to complete all the course readings and assignments, while going through transition and personal obstacles. Overall, I was able to take feedback and feed forward from my peers and professors to grow and expand my projects and assignments.
Self-Reflection: Developing Professional Learning
Score: 95/100
As an individual with autism, I love to advocate for my students and myself. If I see something that I feel needs to be advocated to help improve the education, lives, and the lives of individuals with disabilities. One thing I advocate for is the way different individuals learn. This semester I was able to start a professional learning course on a digital platform that can be used to differentiate critical literacy among all students. I was able to participate in a variety of conversations and discussion post with my peers and professor. I was able to leave comments on peer’s post throughout the discussion post. I was able to complete all the assignments and readings, while going through transition and personal obstacles. With this there are things I could have done better on. One of these things included my time management skills. I cannot always see what my concentration will be like the days following the current day, and this gets me in a bind when completing assignments successfully. My goal for next semester is to get my assignments done early or on time while in a different state with new responsibilities and schedule.
During both of my classes I had a collaboration community where we shared ideas, projects, and stories. In this group we were also able to give each other feedback/ feedforward to each other on many assignments, projects, and life obstacles. My collaborative community included Katie B., Ashley K., Paul S., Jane B., Lance M., and myself. This second fall 8-week term was a very difficult 8- Weeks for my collaboration group and I. We all delt and continue to deal with medical reasonings, transitions, and obstacles, but through all of this we have stuck together to the end. Within our collaboration group, I was able to communicate meeting time ideas, creating a thread that was accessible to all community members through GroupMe, initiate meetings, and clarify assignment expectation and support. Ashley was always there to keep our members up to date with websites that could assist the other group members and I in ways to improve our writing and projects using APA. Paul provided us with lots of stories of the wonderful things he is doing in his personal job, that we could use in our classroom and organizations. Lance kept us on our feet with feedback on our assignments, and his creative ideas on assignments. Overall, the members of my collaborative group provided a positive and helpful environment even through some of the hardest times in all our lives.
References
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, Ky, USA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.