Self Awareness

So much of this semester has revolved around the concepts of growth and learner’s mindsets. To be able to model and help build growth mindset in my children and students, it is essential that I know my own mindset and am able to recognize when I am slipping into a fixed mindset. This has really forced me to reflect on my choices, my actions and my thoughts constantly throughout the day, which has caused a huge increase in awareness of mindset in myself, my children and even the characters on tv shows. What I have found most helpful is not just the awareness of mindset, but the concrete strategies to help strengthen a growth mindset. Part of my process of building a growth mindset is to be open and receptive to sharing work and ideas with my classmates, which is helping me focus on the process of learning and not the end result which I too often perceive as a judgement on my intelligence and ability. I worked with the same group in both EDLD 5313 and 5303: Jesse Dannin, Christopher Aebig, Eboni Mitchell and Claudia Rios. For my self-assessment in EDLD 5313, I mark myself with a 92/100 and a 90/100 for EDLD 5303.

This semester I worked with the same group for both classes, and I felt our ability to work together was really improved from the first two classes. We knew each other a little better, and I was able to take on more of a leadership role by sharing work and answering questions. I was able to stay ahead just enough that I was able to share my assignments as an example to give us a starting point in our discussions. I also felt like I was able to stay on top of the weekly reading and video assignments, and I posted in the discussion board the same week that it was assigned. My assignments were all turned in on time, and I made changes based on the feedback I received from classmates in the ePortfolio discussion boards.

I think my weaknesses come from discussion board comments and verbally participating in weekly zoom classes, particularly in EDLD 5313. My home environment is a little crazy in the evening with my two young children, so unmuting always seems like a risky act. I also struggle with a fixed mindset in class discussions, especially when I am not comfortable with the entire group, because I worry about being wrong or looking stupid. I do try to share my voice and participate in the group chat as a different means of communicating. I struggled with commenting on discussion boards in EDLD 5303 a bit because everyone posted at such different points throughout the course, and I did not make it a high priority to frequently check old boards when I was trying to finish the next assignment in 5313. I also struggled a bit with the lack of assignments in 5303. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it is easy to miss something important when you only have one big assignment due at the end of the course. I am nervous even now as I write this that I have forgotten to complete something for my ePortfolio.

Overall, I feel like this round of classes has been less stressful than the first round because I already had a pretty good start on my ePortfolio. I did find a slightly more complicated editing version of Wix that I am now using, and I was a little frustrated at first having to learn a new editing system and process, but now I really enjoy the control and flexibility it gives me over my content. I really enjoyed creating the 3 Column Table and UbD unit plans because it gives me a much better understanding of intentional lesson design and alignment of goals, activities and assessments. I feel that I grew a lot as a person and educator by writing a learning philosophy and by creating a 3 column table for an authentic project that I would like to implement in my own classroom. My strength as a teacher is having big ideas and dreams, but I definitely struggle to follow through when it comes to creating and executing the big idea, and the 3 column table is definitely going to help support my dreams and big hairy audacious goals when it comes time to plan and then implement.