Contribution to My Learning and the Learning Community

At the conclusion of EDLD 5389, I am awarding myself a score of 97/100 for my contributions to both my own learning and to our learning community. This course pushed me to not only deepen my understanding of effective professional learning but also engage meaningfully with my colleagues in ways that elevated all of our work.

My Self-Assessment: 97/100

I met all of the key contributions listed in the rubric, including:

  • Contributing to and helping build our core collaboration group.

  • Providing thoughtful, actionable peer feedback to my group members on each major assignment.

  • Revising my own assignments based on peer and instructor feedback, and reflecting on those revisions in this contribution activity.

  • Completing all course readings, videos, and supporting resources to inform and strengthen my work.

  • Meeting course activity deadlines as outlined in the calendar.

In addition, I demonstrated several supporting contributions:

  • I consistently took leadership responsibility within my base group by suggesting the use of Padlet to organize our feedback and collaborating with group members to create and maintain it.

  • I actively contributed to all group activities, including weekly Zoom meetings where we discussed challenges and refined our ideas, and daily conversations through our small GroupMe chat, which helped keep everyone aligned and supported.

  • I fully engaged with the required readings, videos, and supplemental resources throughout the course, which helped me contribute well-informed insights to discussions and feedback sessions.

  • I participated in the larger course discussions and forums as well, though I recognize that I could have responded to some posts earlier in the course. In the future, I plan to distribute my feedback more evenly between the broader course forum and my immediate cohort.

Group Members

I collaborated consistently with the following group members:

  • Ashley Rose

  • Sarah McDavid

  • Tamie Land

  • Joey Fisher

  • Kennedy Tarbutton

We communicated on discussions and assignments using Padlet, where we shared feedback and tracked progress on our work. We also met often after the class Zoom meetings and maintained regular communication in our small GroupMe cohort. This tight-knit, intentional collaboration was unique to this course. While I have experienced community learning in prior courses, this is the first time I truly felt our group leveraged the opportunity to its fullest potential. Our consistent, real-time collaboration and feedback loop created a meaningful sense of accountability and growth, which directly improved the quality of my work.

Group Zoom June 9, 2025

Group Zoom June 16, 2025

Group Zoom July 7, 2025

Group Zoom July 17, 2025

Main GroupMe Evidence June 28, 2025

Main GroupMe Evidence July 7, 2025

Small GroupMe Evidence July 17, 2025

Reflection

One area for growth is that I could have engaged sooner in some of the broader discussion forums. Although I ultimately responded to each collaborative discussion, I prioritized providing current and timely feedback to my small group first. This ensured their work had actionable and constructive input each week, and it allowed me to track their progress and growth throughout the course. However, moving forward, I plan to engage earlier in the larger class forums to help foster a stronger sense of connection with the full learning community.

Attending every live Zoom session also strengthened my engagement and helped me stay on top of expectations. It allowed me to contribute meaningfully in real time, ask clarifying questions, and support others during these sessions. I believe my consistent presence, commitment to the readings and videos, and constructive feedback helped sustain the momentum my own learning thus contributing to our groups overall learning. I felt that I was seen as a reliable and supportive peer throughout the course.

Overall, I am proud of the contributions I made to my own learning and to the learning of others. I not only grew as a self-directed learner but also helped create an environment of trust, feedback, and collaboration. These experiences will inform my professional practice, particularly as I work to foster similar learning communities among teachers in my school.

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"We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience."
                                             — John Dewey