The last blog post I wrote about trying to finding a healthy work / life balance this year....... sadly it's not something I've managed so far. Juggling full-time work, part-time study and family life has been a struggle and at times it has felt like I have been running on empty.
This is the third year in a row that I have been involved in study and at times the very structured nature of the Mindlab postgraduate course, in comparison to my efellowship research year and the Aspiring Principals programme, has been challenging. The course definitely needs some tweaking, starting with the due dates for practical assignment aligning better with the school year. For example; the second digital assignment, implementing and critically analysing the success of a digital innovation, was due in week 6 of term one. It is unrealistic to expect a digital and collaborative innovation to be implemented at this time of year, let alone critically analysed. The main priority for teachers at the beginning of term one is setting up classroom routines and developing a positive classroom culture.
However, as I begin the last part of my postgraduate course, I think it is important to look back and consider what I have learnt, what has challenged me, and what I will take with me into my practice.
The first 16 weeks consisted of weekly four hour face-to-face sessions and covered a wide variety of topics within the two papers.
'Digital and Collaborative Learning in Context'
'Leadership in Digital and Collaborative Learning'
Of these session, the second digital and collaborative learning session that focused on ITL 21st Century Learning Design has had the most influence on my practice to date. The learning rubrics have become a key resource that helps to guide my planning.
Planning and implementing a digital innovation had both its challenges and rewards. As mentioned before, the timing of the second assignment proved rather frustrating, however I managed to make the best of the situation and was very pleased with my assignment results.
The Leadership paper reinforce prior learning from the Aspiring Principals programme and looked at leadership through a digital and collaborative lens. For the second leadership assignment, I worked collaboratively with our DP to complete a digital leadership presentation. It outlined our leadership plan for staff professional development and incorporated parts of our Mindlab learning that we are sharing with our colleagues. Working collaboratively was an experience I really valued.
Something I learnt about myself early on, was that I am a bit of perfectionist. We were given several tasks that required us to create digital presentations within a short time frame (often 30 minutes) and then share these with the Mindlab G+ community. As a person who will re-work and edit often, this really challenged my thinking. The 'near enough is good enough' attitude didn't sit well with me.
What I came to realise was that these activities were more about the process than the product. I wonder, how do our students feel when they are pressured by time restrictions?
The second half of the course consists of two on-line papers. The first paper that we have just completed was 'Research and Community Informed Practice'. The main assessment for this course was a literature review based on research question of our choosing. My research question was:-
What is the impact of goal setting on self-regulated learning?
What began as a daunting task, proved to be a really rewarding experience. It is by far the most challenging assessment I have undertaken, but I have learnt a lot about myself during this process. I am definitely a visual learner. My most effective planning happens in the form of mind maps. The structure of my research assignment become clear after manipulating a large number of quotes and ideas recorded on sticky notes ......which have become my new best friend!
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