Before I began the Applied Digital Learning program at Lamar, I had a strong interest in designing professional development courses. Having spent more than 20 years in education, I have attended many professional development sessions. Reflecting on the types of professional learning that I have participated in helped me when I began to design my course. My district has recently implemented a new math curriculum for elementary students in grades kindergarten through second. This influenced me to change my original innovative plan from social studies stations to math stations. As I begin the new school year as a classroom teacher, I will be willing to share my professional development course with my peers on my campus, and possibly within my school district.
Due to the fact that this was a summer course, I felt more of a struggle to keep up with classes and assignments because of the change in my work schedule. Summer is typically a family time for teachers where relaxation and rest take place. My advice to students in the ADL program would be to prepare accordingly when scheduling vacations and course work.
Key Contributions
When scoring my key contributions, I feel that because of the summer schedule I was not as collaborative as I have been in my other courses. I did post to every module discussion in a timely manner and replied and responded to comments on my posts as well as those of other students. I am in a large collaboration group of 25 students within GroupsMe for the class and try to keep up with comments, questions, and posts through the group as well as within Blackboard. I mostly collaborate with Eleanor Wilson as we have been in multiple courses together. I did not have to revise any assignments but I did receive feedback prior to turning in work so that I could revise before submitting. I completed all of my assignments on time, often turning them in a few days early due to family engagements and responsibilities. I also completed all of the course readings and videos, however, I do notice that in Blackboard it doesn’t not reflect this due to recent changes.
Supporting Contributions
Leadership is very important and necessary when collaborating. Throughout this course, I did not take a strong leadership role in my base group, mostly because it was so large. I feel that I work better in a much smaller group. However, I did participate more in the Blackboard discussions by commenting and participating in all of the activities within the modules. I feel that my posting were relevant to the assignments and research and mixed comments with those that required APA citings as well as making comments and participating in conversations.
FInal Grade
As stated, I feel that my summer schedule interfered a lot with my participation in the course when compared to when I am on a work schedule. I did meet all of my Key Contributions, however, I do not feel I met the Supporting Contributions as well as expected. For this reason, I have scored myself with an 88.
Blended Elementary 