As another semester is about to come to an end, I always get myself overwhelmed with mixed emotions. There’s the greatest feeling of accomplishing yet again another milestone, the indescribable feeling of relief that I made it and I am becoming closer to finishing the program. There is no denying that although this is already my 3rd semester with ADL, I still felt challenged, the anxiety and stress at times were unbearable, but through it all I persevered, I survived, and most importantly I take with me a load of new discoveries, wisdom, and experience.
Taking up two ADL courses, EDLD 5313 (Creating Significant Learning Environment) and EDLD 5389 (Developing Effective Professional Learning) was another adventure for me. Throughout this semester, with the readings, discussions, assignments, and other resources, I saw myself playing multiple roles. As both courses was intended for learners to plan and implement an effective professional learning community and create a significant learning environment, I had to primarily assume the role of the facilitator and learner at the same time. But to make my PL proposal as effective and realistic as possible, I used my own experience as a PL participant to assess what makes it successful, and what factors contribute for a PD or PL to fail. The same way that for me to create a significant learning environment for my students, I had to revisit my learning philosophy and explore different design processes (3 Column Table and UbD). With every assignment of this course and aside from the resources provided, I would do my own Q&A session. I ask, I answer. I read, I reflect, I contradict and agree to disagree with myself. To accomplish the assignments, I did a lot of reflection. True enough, experience can still be your best teacher.
I was intimidated and a bit hesitant to post and comment on discussion boards when I first started with the program. I am quite the reserved and quiet one in class, but I realized learning is meant to be shared and heard. For this past semester, I was more involved with the weekly discussions and really appreciated the exchange of ideas, sentiments, and opinions. The (physical) distance among us was insignificant every time we shared our post or impart comments to a peer’s post. Now, participating with discussion posts has become part of my learning. It keeps me grounded to share how I feel and understand others by reading their posts. It has become influential for me to be more open to different perspectives, and see the world far beyond my horizon.
Throughout the last few semesters, I have met, constantly collaborated and made new friends with a group of wonderful enthusiastic learners. Together we have a learning network in GroupMe where we share each other’s triumphs, struggles and even our daily highs and lows. We are now a growing community of 23 members that communicate and support each other’s learning. I have personally collaborated with Claudia, Sabine,Tamara, and Gauri. We have grown together as a group since we all started with the program almost the same time. We share ideas, discuss upcoming assignments and other requirements, or update each other with useful resources and information. When questions or concerns arise, we provide clarifications, look for answers together or just show support. We are all open to suggestions, feedback, feed forwards because we have become each other’s cheerleader and source of inspiration. On several occasions, I have been meeting with a small group through Zoom to discuss our respective assignments and share constructive advice we can each consider. It has guided me to improve my work and better understand the requirements. I was also able to give recommendations, answer questions or concerns if they have any, and also get some inspiration for future tasks. With every opportunity to collaborate, we have created a very meaningful and fun learning community. We may at times feel overwhelmed with deadlines here and there, but this support group has encouraged me to keep going and just enjoy the learning journey. And true enough, we have again closed another chapter, fulfilled and accomplished. Now, on to the next!
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