Reflection

Although I'm only halfway through this course, I already know that it will have a deep and lasting impact on my ability to lead and create change.

One powerful impact was reading Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath. The framework they present for planning for and thinking about making changes is simple, memorable, compelling, and powerful. As a person who wants to make positive changes in education, it is an invaluable read and one that I am sure I will come back to throughout my career. I'm already applying my learning through my participation in a district leadership group focusing on creating common learning experiences across all grades preK-4. The Switch framework has greatly informed my ability to plan for the changes we intend to make to professional development and our goal of creating a more open, sharing culture.

The second deep learning is participation in the massive open online course (MOOC) for the text The Innovator's Mindset. By having our class join in this worldwide learning community, we are engaging in a much larger conversation that we could possibly have with just the nine people taking the course. It also makes participating in a MOOC independently in the future feel more approachable, as I will have already had the experience. It empowers me, as a learner, to participate in aspects of the learning that are most important and useful for me.

I look forward to continued learning through the second half of this course, and will undoubtedly seek out opportunities to study with Lucie again in the future as she is a truly excellent creator of learning opportunities for educators.