"You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better." In her book, Mindset, Carol Dweck explains how having a growth mindset when it comes to learning can only make you a better learner. By not letting setbacks define you but by learning from them and moving on. These first two classes are coming to a close and I feel like I have learned so much but I am still growing. At the beginning of this semester, I felt lost and so confused by classes that didn’t have much guidance.
The freedom to have choice and voice in my assignments has not happened to me in higher education. We were forced to learn in a sit and get way and prove that we acquired that knowledge through written papers and tests. This was completely changed in these classes. We had to get uncomfortable to be able to grow and I will be honest at first I resisted that. I struggled with too many options and the unease of not having someone tell me exactly what to do to get a good grade. But coming out of the other side, I can see how this is beneficial for students. I have seen how different all of my group members' projects are and how we each have our own unique twist on things. I am still much to learn when it comes to having a growth mindset, but I feel like I am getting better at it every day. I also want to continue getting better at procrastinating. I am the type of person that works best under pressure. I will also put off working on something if I don’t think I can do it correctly. That often put me in a bind during these two classes because I always felt like I didn’t know what to do. However, once I completed the work I was able to do well and really enjoyed it. I am going to continue working on my time management and building my confidence with myself.
I have been very lucky to establish a great group in which we are able to work together and gain valuable feed forward from each other during our classes. We work together when needed and even offer words of encouragement when we are struggling with assignments or with other things going on in our lives. Throughout the classes, I have responded to group member’s and other’s discussion posts hopefully adding thoughtful insight and information that helped them while also learning from their original posts. I also attended all accountability meetings we held on Mondays after class. These meetings were so valuable because we were able to ask questions we had and get responses from other members right away. These meetings were also beneficial because we were able to build relationships with each other and I can already tell I will be friends with people in my group long after we earn our masters degrees. I also set up our GroupMe so we were better able to communicate with each other as we noticed the messaging in Blackboard wasn’t great for what we had in mind.
I love information. I enjoyed how every week we had videos to watch and articles, blog posts, and more to read. Having so many other ways to learn was very helpful for me throughout the classes. As a result, I often immersed myself in all of the information offered to me in these classes. Reading through all the material was very beneficial to guide my way through the program. I often was able to find the answers to questions I had just by looking through the material. Having both 5302 and 5305 at the same time was like having two puzzle pieces in the program fit together. As I was learning about my learning and how I can be a better learner, I was able to dig deep within my school and find a way to help the students be better at learning and reflecting on their own work. It also gave me the option to work on my ePortfolio as I was going through the classes instead of building one after. For me, I think that worked very well for me and my learning style as I really love to design. I also really enjoyed being able to talk to other students in the program who already went through the classes. They were able to answer questions I didn’t even know I had about the projects we were working on.
During the program, I was able to complete all assignments by the due dates given. They were spread out well and we had plenty of time to complete them. The only thing I struggled with was responding to the discussions after I made my original posts. In our next classes, I will try to be better about to responding to other’s posts when I post mine. Overall I really enjoyed working with my group members, learning about myself, and coming up with a plan to better my school. I am excited to see what the next classes bring. I am looking forward to some more uncomfortable learning!
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Ballantine Books.
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