Reflecting on my journey of creating an innovation project, I am proud of all that I have done. I look back at my eportfolio and I am amazed at everything that I actually accomplished. When I first began, I was SO very confused and second-guessing myself every step of the way. When I began the process of creating my innovation project, I was stumped about what mine would even be about. When I started thinking about daily issues that I witnessed at school and the visions I have for my students as they leave high school, I immediately thought of them creating an eportfolio for themselves. I decided to start small and focus on eportfolios in my dance classes. I wrote an innovation proposal that would be directed toward school administrators and teachers. I learned that speaking to the hearts of people is what keeps their attention, therefore, I created my call to action. It is always important to remember the why. I will say that my literature review was the most difficult for me. I want to say that this was hard for me due to the time I was taking the course. As a dance director, and mom of 2 young children in multiple sports while in grad school…I believe I grew gray hairs trying to balance it all! All in all, the literature review is important to back up information and give credibility to your subject.
One course that did change not only my way of thinking for myself, but how I viewed learning for every individual was the Creating Significant Learning course. Learning about the COVA learning style, having a growth mindset and developing the power of yet mindset was so significant to my journey, how I viewed teaching, and even my parenting. I became very careful with how I talked to my children, students and myself when faced with a new challenge. I am thankful for that.
Something I could have done better would have been sticking to my schedule for time management. With each course that I took, I developed a better plan to stay on track with my learning, however, I allowed all of my other day to day tasks to get in the way many times. I could also have done a slight bit more with collaborating with people who were not in my initial collaboration groups. I do feel that collaborating helped tremendously with how I succeeded in this program (even though it was so uncomfortable at the beginning)
My plans to incorporate and spread information about my innovation project is to let the work show for itself. My students are excited about using ePortfolios in dance class. My principal has been very interested in how the eportfolios are being created, and she will be a part of my Professional Learning trial along with a few other colleagues. For my next innovation project, I will apply all of the knowledge I got from being in this program. I now know how to create outlines, effectively research, designs that hold attention, the importance of crucial conversations and how to create change positively. The only other thing I will be sure to do is blog more throughout the process. I enjoy looking back at my journey and I feel like it will be significant to offer that personal perspective when educating others. We are all human, we are all learning, and we must extend grace to others, but most importantly, ourselves.
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