As I continue to enroll in the Applied Digital Learning program, each semester brings me new experiences and challenges. During the semester, my campus lost important members of our administration team. On my campus, we have vacancies for a Director of Instruction, Director of Instruction Helping Teacher, Academic Achievement Specialist, and our head Counselor. The lack of administration consequently put a strain on teachers and caused me to reflect on my career in education. In addition to the difficulties in the workplace and the uncertainty of the direction of schooling shortly, my family experiences a death with the passing of my maternal grandmother’s husband of over 25 years. 

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 My peers in the ADL program are always a tremendous help in keeping me encouraged and knowing what is happening. We continue to communicate through GroupMe to provide feedback to one another and send reminders. Juggling two-grade school courses while being a mom, wife, and full-time educator continues to show me just how challenging it can be to accomplish goals while being a productive and responsible adult. With both 5304 and 5317 live classes being on the same day, Tuesdays were the longest days of the week for me. One strategy I found to be extremely helpful was to simply attend one class and view the other recording the following day. By doing this, it relieved some of the anxiety I felt about doing so much in so little time. 

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I believe I earned a 90 out of a 100 in 5317 and a 95 out of a 100 in 5304. In 5317 we were tasked with creating groups to share our publication rough drafts with. My group members included Candace Alexander, Jackie Bittner, Terri Helaire, and Steven Muñoz. All group members provided feedback to help me improve my publication. I created a Google form for all of us to share publication outlines and provide feedback to each other. I love collaborating and gaining insight. I took the lead and collected everyone’s email addresses to share the documents. I usually follow the lead of others on collaborative assignments, so I am glad I got the experience of taking the lead.

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5304 was a course that involved a lot more reading than any other course I have taken thus far. I enjoyed the literature that was required. Both texts were informative and could be applied to any situation in life to achieve structure and success. The assignments were very helpful in creating a plan to achieve the goal of my innovation. Sometimes when I thought about how to carry out my innovation plan I was overwhelmed, but after using the Influencer Model, 4DX, and 5 Stages of Change, implementing the plan became more realistic. 

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As I finish out the semester, I am extremely grateful for the opportunities to create meaningful projects that will assist me in implementing my innovation plan. One of my favorite aspects of the ADL program is creating tasks that will help us be successful in our occupations instead of just completing assignments for the task. Creating a website and continuing to add to it, has provided me with tools and resources that will allow me to use throughout my career as an educator and beyond.