It was an absolute pleasure to speak with these incredible ladies about our experiences in ADL and even more so to work with each of them over the last year. I do not believe that my experience in the program would have been the same without their endless support and kindness.
As far as my own experiences in the program, as I said in the podcast, it has been mind blowing to be able to look back on my previous work in my ePortfolio and see the growth so clearly. It is almost cringe worthy to look back on my previous work but all that shows is all that I have learned that even work I was proud of seems poorly done now. I have learned so much more than I anticipated and I have built such a wealth of knowledge that I never expected. Being a student again has made me even more patient with my own students and given me such great ideas to implement into my own classroom. From all the frustrations I initially had, I now realize the phrase that growth doesn’t come from being comfortable is astoundingly true. Those frustrations were coming from me feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what “taking control of your learning” meant. Now, I understand that concept for myself but I also am learning ways to implement that concept with my own students. Learning this new style of being a student was very difficult for me initially as I am so used to the traditional classroom style of do what your told to the degree that you can. While learning how to be a student again, I was also teaching myself how to use new technological resources like wordpress and uploading videos to Youtube. I can now look back on all of that frustration with gratefulness to all the knowledge I have attained and all of the growth I have gone through.
Journey of Learning 