Educate your mind and your soul!
Resources in a
Digital Environment
EDLD 5317- Dr. Sue Bedard
Mic Drop at DZ
Today’s Topic:
Data Tracking ePortfolios for Reflection and Feedback: Allowing Students to Build Their Growth Mindset
With the onset of COVID, the education field took a big hit. Educators were forced to rethink their strategies and include technology in different ways to reach their students. In addition, the focus of education transformed to meet students where they were emotionally. Many educators turned to John Hattie’s Visible Learning due to the impact it has in filling gaps academically while empowering students. With a campus focus of emphasizing metacognition, growth mindset, and write to learn, de Zavala Middle School in Irving ISD embarked on a journey to empower students to take ownership of their academic outcomes.
The podcast was created by myself, our campus DLC (Digital Learning Coach), Melissa Colvin, and with some additional help from our AS (Academic Specialist), Teri Daulton. It includes topics such as data digital ePortfolios(Digital Data Tracker as we call it), growth mindset, and goal setting. In this podcast, we also discuss our experience as educators, we chat with some students to get their thoughts on the digital data tracker, we hear other educators’ thoughts on the tracker, as well as setting goals and building a growth mindset on our campus. I've also co-authored a piece to publish about the advantages of digital data tracking ePortfolios. It goes into how the tracker can build a growth mindset for students, as well as, teachers and administrators. It is not quite ready for publication, so unfortunately you will have to wait to read it. Hopefully, the little teaser and our podcast will enlighten you and then entice you to read the article when it releases. (that is my hopeful thinking)
Contribution to My Learning Community
Score: 80
I gave myself an 80 because I made all my deadlines for assignments and only missed 1 discussion, but I did not get to read all the articles or watch all the videos on time. To be completely honest, trying to find a work/school/life balance has been hard this year after starting a new role in leadership. It is also a new role for the district and is constantly changing and evolving. I tried to do my best, as I always do with my work. This was also the first 8-week course I'd taken since switching from DLL to ADL, so I had to keep a close eye on my schedule. It was easy to lose track of time, and I could understand how students may miss homework or discussion deadlines. I am so thankful for my group and our never-ending discussions. Kristen Patterson, Robyn Tompkins, Talor Kinzy, and Jennifer Turnbow made up my group, and we got along well. I worked with them in every class, so we became pretty close. Although the rubric was tedious, it was helpful. I liked discussing and commenting on my own work as well as the work of others. Any input I received was taken into account, and I made changes as a result. I'll mention that my group works well together and was great at providing recommendations and congratulations for all of our efforts.
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I created a quick overview for the outline, but I knew what it meant and what I would include in my article rough draft that would be written soon after. After speaking with my group, we all had various views about what was required. Therefore, when Anna gave me input, I incorporated her comments into my rough draft.
Publication Rough Draft (not linked due to publishing process)
After receiving feedback from Anna and some of my group members, I went to work on my rough draft. I decided to co-author because I am working on a project for my campus and it aligned with this class and several of the assignments. I started the article and worked together with a co-worker to get the article completed. It was hard to stick to the guidelines (or follow them for that matter) when needing to reach a certain length. I did not want to just start spouting off nonsense or ramble. In the end, it all came together.
Podcast and Podcast Plan
I loved this assignment. This was the main project that we are actually working on for our campus, so it was easy to transition into this assignment. I worked with our DLC (digital learning coach) and AS (academic specialist) to create a plan for the podcast which included questions, guests, and an action list for planning purposes. Interviewing students and teachers on our campus was so much fun and I have to say, the podcast turned out so well. As far as helping group members...there were times we would ask a lot of questions and then send each other our ideas and eventually our podcasts for review in order to help each other.
Article Final Draft (not linked due to publishing process)
I changed my article rough draft based on the comments I received from Anna and I decided that I think I want to submit it to Edutopia. Originally it was not long enough and now I think it may be just a little too long, so I will have to revise it again once I do make a decision with my co-authors on publishing the article. My group members were really helpful in providing comments on the rubrics, which allowed me to improve and add things to make it better. One member (Jennifer Turnbow) even recorded a video and gave verbal comments in order to help with revisions. Right now the topic of my research is super important on my campus, but I am not sure if it is something that all educators will want to hear about. Now, I realize that being published takes a lot of work, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to put it out there. I mean the worst they will say is “no thank you”. As Dr. Bedard stated in one of our classes, 90% of people that attempt to publish get told no.