Session 1 Commentary

Think about including stories about how you came to the Innovative Learning program, your philosophy of education and how that influenced your TPACK journey.  You may also include professional background. NOTE: please write in first person ‘I’ - not third person
I came to the Innovative Learning program out of an acknowledgement of both my ignorance and curiosity. Having spent the last 14 years as an administrator, I have been less of a practitioner than I feel is essential to be a true instructional and transformational leader. That said, I have always had the mindset that it is within my purview and skillset to do something about it, thus I am here. Also, recent learnings, e.g., Jo Boaler's Growth Mindset conference at Stanford, have peaked my interest and led me down a path of wanting to know and do more relative to my role as administrator and subsequently, my driving question. In terms of the interplay with the aforementioned and my overall educational philosophy, that is a challenge to detail here given the extent to which my beliefs have been shaped by my experiences, both personal and professional. If asked to distill my philosophy down to its most rudimentary level, I would say I continually and strategically work to improve the student academic and social situation; that teachers are the ones who have the greatest impact and that we must afford them the time and space to make learning happen. To that end, I love organizational theory of all types and kinds, including the business world, e.g., In Search of Excellence by Peters and Waterman.

How does this and everything else swirling around in my head influence my TPACK journey? Luckly, or humbly speaking, my content knowledge is terribly limited, rendering the effect minimal in that domain. That said, I am working to grow my technological knowledge within this course while maintaining a relatively strong background in instructional practices/knowledge. 

Make notes about your thinking and driving question for your capstone website. Is your driving question the same thing that you wrote about in your capstone paper? Or has your focus changed? What is your statement of inquiry? Who is your audience?

My driving question remains the same, i.e., can a new intervention model which has maths teachers pushing into colleagues’ classes to co-teach, work with groups or individual students to backfill gaps, or general review/tutoring improve student academic achievement and students' mindset. If statement of inquiry refers to the big picture or why my topic is important, we need look no further than the dire state of national, state and local mathematics achievement, as well as the proven impact mindset interventions can have on historically poor performing students - a matter of critical significance giving the growing achievement gap. In terms of my audience, this is a matter with which I continually struggle given what I believe is the irreplicable context of my situation. Were I forced to choose an audience, it would be school and district faculty as there are curricular, instructional, assessment, learning environment, and professional development needs and implications which should only be managed by educational professionals.

​Blog about your own goals relative to the the goals of the program. What hopes/thoughts do you have on how fellow cohort members can support you with completing your capstone and how you can support them? How will you work to support positive cohesion among your cohort? What is important to you in terms of group norms?  

My goals relative to the program are to

• develop a greater awareness of technological tools and their appropriateness in achieving academic goals
• collaborate with other educators in digesting content relative to the Innovative Ed program, thus increasing my perspective outside of my current site and district
  
• grow my own comfort level and experimentation with technologically appropriate tools
• share my perspective with other cohort members given I am currently the only administrator in the group
• learn more about truly innovative educational practices

In terms of solicited support from other cohort members, I have already reached out to several people who have gone through the program given my struggle at identifying my capstone. I struggle with marketing a product that I have yet to tangibly identify, as well as one that I feel on some level is exclusive to our context and thus a non-public matter. In terms of my support of them, I have always been a better coach than a player and am happy to provide feedback related to what I believe the capstone is to entail. Knowing we are all in the same boat, I feel positive cohesion can only be achieved by speaking openly and honestly about where we are in our individual and collective processes with the assurance from instructors that it is a safe space to do so. Speaking about norms, my favorite and least adhered to is the mandate to ask the hard questions or ensure we consider the contrary in our work.