from Wings & a Wand

One of the best ways we can encourage innovative change through our leadership is leaving imprint on our students’ and our colleague’s hearts through service. The servant leader makes a difference because those acts evoke emotions in others. They realize that they matter in the innovation. As I go about the work of enacting my Innovation Plan, I hope the teachers and students participating feel and believe that they matter throughout the process.

• Past

  At the beginning of my coursework for my Master’s degree, I synthesized what I was reading and learning to identify a problem in my educational environment encompassing Emergent Bilinguals that could be solved through Blended/Personalized Learning with a COVA approach (Harapnuik et al., 2018; Horn et al., 2014). From this, I developed my Innovation Plan and Proposal. I shared my summations of my reading and learning in my Literature Review which was later enhanced by my Action Research Plan. I also created an Implementation Plan with a timeline for my project. From there, I added components of my coursework in Applied Digital Learning that enhancedpr my design along with my leadership skills for my Innovation Plan/Project. All of this work was carefully placed in my ePortfolio entitled “Wings and a Wand”which includes my bio and my blog.

• Present

  As of today, I have been able to get buy-in with my administrator and participation by Science teachers on my campus in my Foundational phase. I have moved into the Planning phase where these teachers are in the middle of my Action Research Plan for my Innovation Plan/Project. We are creating and assessing the viability of the activities in our new LMS to support one of the domain areas tested by the state for Emergent Bilinguals. With their input, I picked our lowest scoring domain area for assessing growth. We determined that targeting this domain will influence inherently another domain tested by the state based on my research for my Literature Review.

  After seeing success in one 5th grade teacher’s Science classroom last year, her partner is joining us in piloting my Innovation Plan/Project with its framework and activities. Together, these teachers in my Pilot and I are figuring out the LMS to leverage its technology successfully in our Blended/Personalized Learning environment. They are invested in the success of not just our EB students, but in the success of all of our students in this learning environment (Horn et al., 2014; Ed Elements,2018).

• Future

  This spring, we will start on the Piloting phase that continues to build out activities in Science in all language domain areas of Emergent Bilingual students that are tested by the state. Piloting teachers will also vet out my Alternative PL Design that I will use with participating teachers on other campuses in the Implementation phase that starts in September of the next school year. At the end of that school year, we will be in the Reflection phase that allows us to see the outcome of the Innovation Plan/Project in comparison with the overall data.

• Glow & Grow

  The Science content area was a great place to start for supporting EB learners due to the subject’s academic difficulty and their educational needs. Already having built a strong working relationship with my campus teachers and the district Science coordinator was very beneficial to my work. My previous professional learning segued beautifully into the planning and launching of my Innovation Plan along with enhancing my coursework in Applied Digital Learning (Ed Elements,2018; Harapnuik, 2023).

  However, I did not take into account the obstacles that were encountered as I started to implement my Innovation Plan/Project. First, there was the slow rollout of our district’s new LMS along with the essential training for it due to technology staff funding cuts last spring. Second was the amount of time it took our faculty to move into a completely renovated building at the beginning of the school year. This caused me to rework my Implementation Plan to a two-year rollout vs. one-year.

• Lessons Learned

  I have learned that you can’t rush the process. One must do the research, look at the data, and learn from others’ missteps in Blended Learning (Harapnuik, 2023). Following the process of the various models such as the Influencer Model or the 4DX Model to increase the motivation of others participating in any innovation with change is key (Patterson and Grenny, 2013).

  I have also learned that I own this Innovation Plan/Project and have to make adjustments as I go. Just like a teacher adjusts the learning based on the needs of the students, I needed to adjust the learning based on the needs of the teachers in my Innovation Plan/Project. However, I truly believe in the power of “yet” in having a Growth Mindset (Dweck, 2006). Even though my Implementation Timeline has been adjusted, my Innovation Plan/Project is still “moving and breathing.” I continue to approach each obstacle with a Learners Mindset knowing that I will learn something by overcoming it (Harapnuik, 2023). I also utilize grit to keep going through the various struggles that are inevitable with change and innovation (Duckworth, 2013).

• My Learning Process

  As I learned these lessons, my learning process underwent a philosophical change while working on this project. I started with a belief in the value of Blended/Personalized Learning from a Behaviorist mindset and came to embrace a more Constructivist mindset along with experiencing the true value behind project-based learning (Horn et al, 2014; Kurt, 2021).

• Key Take-Aways & Application

  Looking forward, I would start with a more realistic Implementation Timeline that accounts for unexpected obstacles that occur when working in education. I would factor in that the larger the participant group; the harder it is to make adjustments, because it is like turning an aircraft carrier vs. a motorboat with the communication required. I would keep in mind that more incremental details are needed in the Pilot stage of the plan, and utilize Action Research more effectively to work out the kinks during the Pilot before the Implementation stage.

• Promotion

  A leader must be ready to “Lead with the Why.” Our students ask this question, so adults will, too. Answering “the why” is a central piece of my “Call to Action” video. It is what I will utilize to promote and communicate my Innovation Plan/Project along with sharing “My Story” in Blended/Personalized Learning to improve the education of Emergent Bilinguals in this 21st Century. I look forward to adding to this story the details of the completed implementation of my Innovation Plan/Project.

References:

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Random House

Duckworth, A. (2013). Grit: the power of passion and perseverance. Retrieve from

Elements, E. (2018). The ultimate personalized learning guide. Education Elements. https://www.edelements.com/personalized-learning

Harapnuik, D. (2023). CSLE+COVA. It’s About the Learning. Retrieved October 29, 2023, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6988

Harapnuik, D. (2023). Learner’s mindset. It’s About the Learning. Retrieved October 29, 2023, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=8773

Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). COVA: Choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning (0.9) [Ebook]. Creative Commons License.

Horn, M. B., Staker, H., & Christensen, C. M. (2014). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. Wiley.

Kurt, S. (2021, February 21). Constructivist learning theory. Educational Technology. https://educationaltechnology.net/constructivist-learning-theory/

Patterson, K., & Grenny, J. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change. Second Edition. McGraw-Hill Education.