Final Reflection

http://luce-stellare.blogspot.ca/

     My initial goal was to stimulate change in a problem program area. Through my engagement in PME 800 and through the SRL process, I realized that my overall goal became my distal goal which is very high level and I needed to start smaller. If I could take one building block and write down the first step in a process of change, it would say Critical Reflection

 http://justpict.com/image-of-building-blocks.html

     I truly believe that critical reflection is the key to improvement in this program area. Faculty need to gain insight into what the students are saying and how they are feeling about courses and the overall program.Critical reflection will help teachers to recognize strengths and gaps. Open dialogue may be difficult to initiate with colleagues; however, once a safe space has been established, and ground rules have be set, the process can begin to roll out. My hope is that with patience and persistence, a cultural shift will occur. 

     What have  I learned through my SRL process? I am thankful that SRL process gave me a vision of where and how I want things to go over the next year. My SRL process brought forward new insights that helped me to see things in a positive light. As I've worked through this process I realized that I can't change things overnight and really... why would I want to? This is an opportunity to lay the groundwork and follow it through. 

    I feel I stayed on track for the most part, but I did get stuck a couple of times throughout the process. I feel this process is very valuable and I will apply SRL in other areas. For example, I will be working through the accreditation process for two programs over the next 8 months and I feel that SRL can keep me on track and help me reach my goals. I will need to learn about two heath disciplines in great detail making this a very daunting task above and beyond my daily work. SRL has improved my learning skills and reinforced the value of goal setting especially as I'm planning to tackle some major projects.

     Overall, I am very pleased with my inquiry process and the final product. My intention is to present my final project to the group that is currently storming in my workplace. My hope is that my Critically Reflective Teaching Practice presentation will motivate others in the group to engage in SRL process. The project gave me the opportunity to evaluate my leadership skills and find strategies to deal with difficult conversations,  facilitate conflict and evoke change. 

Motivational!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN79-Tv5GHY

     This is one of my favourite short videos. I find it very motivational and inspirational. Richard St. John's "8 to be Great"  theory really resonates with me. Working through my inquiry I refereed back to the video I happened upon in a course I was taking a couple of years ago. Working through my SRL inquiry I was reminded of the traits St. John identified in the video. 

http://www.richardstjohn.com/content/buynow/downloads.php?p=1

Passion- is the driver behind our goals.  
Work- without  labor- nothing will change, develop, or grow
Focus-I have lost my focus several times over the last six months. Being new in my role, I've second guessed decisions and questioned my beliefs; however, I can't loose sight of my goals. 
Push- I'm an introvert so I tend to be naturally quiet. I take time to process my thoughts. Sometimes this works against me as some people perceive being introverted as a weakness. I'm an excellent listener and I have to push through my shyness. I think we all have something we need to push through in pursuit of out goals. 
Ideas- getting ideas from the world around us and sharing them with people we trust motivates us to do great work 
Improve- SRL = continuous improvement
Serve- Everyone in this course is developing  something of value that will serve others.

Persist-  I think Perseverance is key  to accomplishing anything worthwhile

 http://websiteconfetti.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Ted-Speaker-Richard-St.-John-quote-compiled-by-website-confetti.png

SRL Monitoring Process

Eva’s SRL Monitoring Process

Reflective Practice 

Working through my SRL Monitoring process has been very time consuming and it helpful. It has helped to keep me on track. I would like to introduce students to SRL and  have them engage in a monitoring process for a class project. I think this is very valuable learning tool. 

https://jyedu.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/srlpic.png

Distal Goal: My distal goal is to support faculty in becoming change agents which will positively affect student learning. I want to facilitate change in one of the  health programs that continues to be storming. Collaboration, caring and commitment are key elements that need to be strengthened for individuals to gain respect for one another. I will continue to evaluate and develop my leadership skills to support this goal through my own SRL.

Proximal Goal: To facilitate the development of reflective practice amongst teachers.

Rationale: If  we, as educators, could gain an appreciation for how students see us; we could be better educators.  One of our greatest challenges is to engage a diverse population of students with good teaching pedagogy.  The implications of our actions in the classroom make a difference to our students. The disconnect amongst program staff negatively impacts the learners. The lack of cohesiveness amongst the team members creates barriers to communication which ultimately harms the quality of the program.

Monitoring Process

Task	Challenges	Progress	Next Steps	How am I feeling about this now?
Set Proximal Goal	Difficulty pinpointing my proximal goal in  Module 2 but I had a clear vision of the desired outcome.	I have pinpointed my proximal goal that serves as a building block for organizational change. Completed Feb 25/16	Continue to research critical reflection theory. Provide evidence to support the notion that critical reflection will have a positive impact on this dysfunctional  team	I was stumped for several days and kept going back and forth massaging the goal.  I feel like I have a solid foundation and feel extremely motivated by my inquiry.
Research	I have found many useful resources including videos, articles, and textbooks. Staying on topic is challenging.	I have located all of my research but continue to find more. Completed Feb 28/16 Locate images for Weebly presentation. Complete by March 3/16	Read articles and pull out key information.	I feel very satisfied about what I have discovered so far. I am inspired by the resources and how they relate to my  problem of practice .
Blog	The blog has helped guide my SRL process. Blogging serves as a forum for my own self reflective practice. The only challenge with this tool is the time it takes to create an insightful post.	Completed 3 Blog entries by Feb 28/16 Need to complete at least two more entries this week By: March 8/16	Complete the Blog: Critical Reflection Write two more Blog Posts: One that speaks to evaluating the information from the resources. The final blog post will reflect my final learning.	I feel that blogging has helped me to monitor my learning better and improve my metacognitive practices. This topic is very dear to my heart and I endeavor to try to use my findings to facilitate change in the work environment.
Discussion with my learning  group	Finding a time suitable for everyone in our learning group went fairly smoothly. No challenges.	Meeting is set for March 2/16	Meeting on  March 2/16  at 8:00pm	I am looking forward to meeting with the group on Today’sMeet. I am sure I will gain deeper insight and significant take-aways from the conversation my team members in Group A.
Create Weebly	I do not anticipate  too many  challenges with creating a Weebly to showcase my final project except perhaps minimizing distractions.	I have created the first two slides of my Weebly presentation. Complete Weebly by March 15/16	Work on Weebly every day  for 30 minutes and 2 hours each day on weekend (March 5 & 6)	I am happy it is break week at the college so that I have a little more quiet time this week and not so many emails to respond to in the evenings.

References

Brookfield, S.(1995) Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco:

Josey-Bass Publishers

Group Chat

  http://bergman-udl.blogspot.ca/2014/07/4-ways-to-engage-students-with-todays.html

    Group A had the opportunity to "meet" in a virtual meeting using TodaysMeet. I really enjoy using this tool. It's easy to use and allows the organizer to PDF the transcript. I feel we had a great discussion.  Everyone was able share their problems of practice and receive feedback from our colleagues.  What a great opportunity to "hear" my colleagues' thoughts, ideas and perspectives. It's always a relief to hear that others are experiencing similar roadblocks, and challenges working through their inquires. Our group engaged in discussion effortlessly and the conversation seemed to flow easily from one topic to the next.

      My group raised some good questions which made me realize that reaching my distal goal will take a very long time. Changing culture within a program area or department, that seems to be stuck in a storming cycle, may be more challenging than I originally thought. My group suggested that I provide a framework for faculty/staff to follow which will support my notion that critical reflection is an effective way to raise self awareness and evoke change.  I will continue to research Brookfield's strategies that speak to reflective practices.

     One thing that really resonates with me is how I feel about my original problem. A few short weeks ago I was stumped and discouraged about the situation in my workplace. All I could think about was making things better for staff and students. Now, after working through my inquiry, I am seeing this problem in a new light. Identifying my giant problem, through my SRL inquiry, was the first step to raising self awareness of my own leadership skills and considering  my own thoughts and feelings about the problem. At this point I am not so fixated on the giant problem anymore, but how incremental change can and will affect the team and subsequently students.

Pinpointing the goal

http://yourperfecttrainer.com/blog/podcast/episode-24-goals-setting-part-2-jordan-goldberg-stickk-com-discusses-goals-accountability/

     

          I feel like I am a bit closer to pinpointing my goal. Michelle has provided me with some guiding questions which really helped me to reshape my goal and narrow it down to something much more manageable. My big picture problem is managing a group of educators who have some internal conflict within their program area. The personal conflict  and dysfunction of the group has inhibited positive outcomes for the program and unfortunately has affected the students to some degree. I'm not saying the students are not meeting the learning outcomes or that the program is delivering subpar education; I am saying that the internal conflict is affecting the overall environment of this particular program. The individuals in this group are highly skilled professionals and excellent educators; however, team spirit has been lost and the individual members are blaming each other for breakdown. This situation is not new, a long standing history exists amongst some of the staff members. The group rarely functions as a "team." 

     I want to facilitate change within the program and encourage collaboration amongst the staff in hopes of fostering a sense of caring and commitment in the program; along with respect for one another. Michelle has pointed out that cultural change takes a very long time and change needs to be incremental.  As the person who is currently responsible for this program, I need to evaluate and develop my leadership skills to support this program but not let this program consume all of my time at the expense of the other programs in my portfolio,


I have to consider all of the following criteria in my inquiry:

• students
• staff morale
• staff professional development 
• collaboration
• respect among staff
• negative attitudes affecting students 
• my leadership style 
• my leadership skills
• positive attitudes
• conflict management 
• facilitating good conflict 
• care and respect 
• long term improvement 

 

Setting the Goal

http://www.abc.net.au/health/features/stories/2014/09/25/4094450.htm

My first dilemma is to set my goals. This is not a easy task for me. The following quote captured my original thoughts and feelings about the setting goals: "I hate goals!" Many of us loathe the idea of setting goals: we find them restrictive, stifling, and guilt-inducing. The mere mention of goals can raise hackles: "don't talk to me about goals", "I'd rather just get on with it."(Grant, 2014). I would much rather just get on with it, but.... I must make an overall assessment of what I want to achieve and what is realistic. Although I want to make my "big picture" problem go away; I have to consider the smaller steps to get there. It's very much like training for a half marathon. I can't just starting running and hope to make it to the finish line. I am bound to burn out and "hit a wall" and never reach my goal. I need to have a clear plan and work my way through one kilometre at time. So if I can set goals for my training, why was it challenging for me to set a goal for my SRL inquiry? I had less difficulty identifying the distal goal; however, I have been spending significant amount of time narrowing it down to my proximal goal. time pinpointing a proximal goal.       

    

References
Grant A. (2014). ABC Health and Wellbeing. Retrieved from
http://www.abc.net.au/health/features/stories/2014/09/25/4094450.htm#artShareLinks