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Set professional learning goals.
Actively participate in a global learning network
Report changes made to teaching practice based on timely, research-based best practices.
Set professional learning goals
Set professional learning goals
Build my understanding of SEL and how to address /provide opportunities for students to build SEL in my classroom.
Learn more about equity and culturally responsive teaching
Enroll and Complete Duquesne University Doctoral Program
Read and research to be informed of best practices with tech integration and design of online learning experiences
Develop an understanding of different school systems and teacher training needs.
Join in book studies and participate in panel discussions
Weekly professional learning: Twitter Chats, book studies, webinars, Voxer groups, reading blogs, ISTE Community Discussion, and school PD committee work
Working through the ISTE DEI course, being a member of the network and having an ongoing interest in effectively implementing technology into my classroom.
Exploring research and reevaluating my practice when bringing technology in.
Reading blogs and writing my own blogs as reflection.
Participating in ambassador and certification programs to learn about new features of digital tools and to bring new ideas/strategies into my classroom, especially for remote teaching.
STEM challenges, design thinking, digital citizenship, and SEL.
Learning about and evaluating coding programs and building computational thinking skills.
Continued research into AI and Generative AI
Build skills for marketing that are useful in my consulting and professional development provider work.
Through the GDIT 713 course, I was able to meet several of my professional learning goals for STEM and, in particular, coding.
I reviewed and wrote an analysis of each STEM/coding product we used by following a rubric, thoroughly testing the product and reflecting.
I also used this as an opportunity to test these programs in my classroom to learn more about their impact on student learning.
It presented a great way for me to co-learn with my students and it challenged my skillset with some of the coding programs.
Through the GDIT 705 course with Dr. Heo, I learned a lot about multimedia design and the user experience. The material covered in this course provided great insight into web design and considerations for multimedia creation, especially when creating materials for my students. After this course, I reflected on the types of materials that I had been creating and became more intentional in keeping these guiding principles in mind. With years of experience creating presentation materials for use in my classroom and at conferences and other PD events, I definitely had a lot to learn about multimedia design. This course gave valuable guidelines and activities that enabled me to build my skills and also learn from classmates to help me reflect.
One of the tasks that I found to be personally challenging was designing a birdhouse for one of the courses. I thoroughly enjoyed the course GDIT 719 with Dr. Heo, but it pushed me to develop design skills in a different way and also to collaborate with classmates in the design of one entire space.
Birdhouse
The design of the birdhouse required a different skill set, and in creating my birdhouse, I also leveraged the content that I had acquired from GDIT 705 and some of my Master's coursework. During the Master's, I had to learn Photoshop, and with it having been an online and mostly asynchronous course, that was a challenge. However, being connected to the teachers and to classmates helped with the learning and collaborating process.
The finished product that I designed was a Starbucks birdhouse, and while I did struggle with some aspects of it, such as placing text and aligning the structure, I did enjoy the new experience.
I had watched some demo videos and followed tutorials but did find it to be challenging at first, but then I really enjoyed creating with it.
I can see how my taking on risks with new methods and tools, is essential for learning and helping students to learn.
In the GDIT 714 course, I learned more about the educational systems in the world and the variances in professional learning experiences for educators. It provided eye-opening information about how different the educational systems and teacher preparation programs are outside of the United States. The awareness of how educators are provided for in other countries and comparing it with our systems and areas that I identify as lacking in the U.S. also led me to find my area of interest for the dissertation focus.
Below is a paper written that focuses on professional development and why I believe that this is an area that needs greater attention.
The infographic above was created as a way to compare teacher preparation in different countries. Using Genially, I selected a design to effectively and visually convey the similarities and differences between these two countries and how teachers are prepared and supported.
In addition to gaining new ideas that I can use in my practice and also share with my school for our own professional learning, I also applied my learning from GDIT 705 and focused more on multimedia design.
For the GDIT 714 Course with Dr. Kush, I learned about different educational systems and practices around the world. I investigated several different school systems and selected to compare Finland and Singapore.
In this Genially presentation, I designed an overview and comparative analysis of various aspects of teaching and teacher preparation in these two countries.
Through this assignment, I developed a greater awareness of teacher preparation and strategies that work and prove to be effective for educators. As a teacher and also as a professional development provider, this helped me to not only learn about the experience of others, but to better design some of the training that I provide in my work as a coach and consultant.
In addition to learning about these educational systems, I also applied what I learned about design elements from Dr. Heo's class as I created with Genially to make this interactive presentation. Since I was working with multimedia design, it was important to apply what I had learned from Dr. Heo's class, especially as it helped me to be more conscientious about the layout and design that I am creating to best meet my learners' needs and to be visually engaging as well.
Before GDIT 705, I had created many presentations for use in my classroom and at conferences and tried to make them clear and draw attention to specific areas of each slide or graphic. However, after the course, I better understood how to apply various principles, such as signaling, learner control, and others, in order to design a user-friendly, visually engaging presentation that is also mindful of accessibility.
In GDIT 719, I learned about nudging and other methods of drawing attention to content for learners. I created this Genially, keeping in mind what I had also learned through GDIT 705. The presentation I created enabled me to use multimedia elements, apply what I had learned, and share this with other educators during professional development sessions.
During this course, I became more aware of and reflective of my methods in my classroom and also during professional development sessions that I provided for educators. Some focus areas, such as learner attention, cognitive capacity, memory, and perception, were extremely valuable in my work as a teacher and presenter. Evaluating our methods as educators and reflecting on the impact on student learning is essential.
During and after the course, I was more adept at assessing the learner's ability to process and apply the information that I was presenting, how to chunk the information, and how to design activities that kept cognitive capacity in mind. In my work, the learners are the students that I teach and also the educators that I work with through various PD training, conferences, and webinars that I have the opportunity to present.
The course challenged me in some areas, such as designing a birdhouse using 3D models. It was something that I had done but that I had not spent much time with, and I had not used the specific tool that was to be used for the assignment.
Actively participate in a local or global digital network.
Actively participate in a local or global digital network.
Weekly professional learning: Twitter Chats, book studies, webinars, Voxer groups, reading blogs, ISTE Community Discussion, and school SEL and PD committee work
Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert - for six years as a member of this global community of MIEEs
Being a member of PLNS and participating in conferences around the country and webinars
Learning from others and sharing experiences helps to build my skills.
I have been a member of ISTE since 2014, as well as CSTA and other education and technology-focused organizations such as PAECT.
Active on social networks where educators can reach out with questions and where I can seek new ideas. LinkedIn Communities, Discord Communities, Facebook and Twitter (X).
I created my own Facebook Community for Educators: ThriveinEDU
Creating a podcast that is shared globally and invites other educators to be guests or to also contribute guest blog posts to my site.
The images below are screenshots that show different learning experiences as an attendee and presenter at conferences in the United States and also in London at BETT. Some conferences were held virtually, or we did weekend meetups to talk about relevant topics, brainstorm ideas, and provide support to one another. As a member of ISTE, I stayed involved in several communities and volunteered to assist with various projects, book studies, and book reviews to help other educators. These opportunities tremendously helped me to grow as an educator and to learn about different education systems and technologies used by educators around the world.
Collaboration to inspire others to connect
Collaboration to inspire others to connect
I had the opportunity to present a webinar session about building your PLN and the importance of being a connected educator for educators in Kentucky. Working with Dr. Randall Sampson, we planned the presentation and coordinated the time and recording to share with educators in Kentucky and other locations.
I was able to tell my story of becoming more connected and the impact and provide action steps for educators to take to build their PLN.
It was a good opportunity for me to share my learning and growth journey and also reflect on the impact it has made on my work as a professional and also in my personal life. Also, seeing how we can use different networks through technology to collaborate and continue learning was highly beneficial.
Report changes made to teaching practice based on timely, research-based best practices.
Report changes made to teaching practice based on timely, research-based best practices.
In preparation for personal writing and also for working with the school PD committee, I have engaged in a lot of research focused on topics such as AI, Culturally Responsive Teaching, SEL, and STEM. I have read numerous books and blogs focused on these topics and shared the information with staff and administration. In addition to the research for school programs, I have also been active as a blogger, and I greatly enjoy being able to share information and easy ways to get started with tech or a method with other educators.
Below are some of the articles I have written over the past year and a few from the previous year, in which I share information for educators based on research on emerging technologies and the need for educators and professional development. The information shared provides examples and tools for teachers, steps to take to embrace changes in our teaching practice, and includes some of the changes that were made in my own, based on my research done to share what I had learned with other educators.
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