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Innovation Project Update

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To say that I am a leader, people would think that I am arrogant. A leader is a person who is generally fighting for the rights of people like Martin Luther King Jr. However, during this year, I learned that there are many ways to be a leader, and it also redefines leadership. After watching Drew Dudley's video, I understood that we could be a leader every day, sometimes inspiring other people and, on other occasions, telling other people that they inspired us.

 When I started in the Disruptive Innovation in Technology class, I felt scared because I didn't know what to do in the innovation project. Change, innovation, reflection, analysis, evaluation, and management are essential skills I practice in my innovation plan. When creating and developing my innovation plan, I stared looking at one of the problems that teachers face every day at school with our students. During my 22 years of experience in the teaching field, I met the fact that students do not like to read and that they lack valuable skills to have good reading comprehension. So I decided to focus on implementing Blended Learning with Station Rotation to motivate students to be engaged in reading.

After identifying the problem, I began to write a letter proposal to which my pilot project was exposed. I sent my proposal through email to my Principal and the Assistant Principal. Two days later, I was sitting in my Principal's office, verbally exposing my innovation plan. My Principal accepted my pilot project and said, "good luck and anything you need let me know ."I left my Principal's office happy but worried. 

Finding my why about the purpose of my innovation plan took a lot of work. I had to observe, reflect, and analyze my current students and those there before. Also, talking with colleagues about the problem of students' lack of interest in reading affects them during their journey at school. 

Another essential aspect of implementing the pilot project is knowing, reviewing, and analyzing what our leaders and philosophers investigated on blended learning and reading. Educate yourself on the subject, so knowing the literature review is very important. 

As I progressed both in the master's degree and in the implementation of my innovation plan, new challenges, learning, ideas, and connecting everything during the pilot project implementation were and will be a challenge to start my innovation plan in my next year of school. My first innovation plan was my impulse to reflect on my way of teaching and get out of my comfort zone. I am grateful for what I have learned during these months and am a recent graduate wanting to implement the knowledge acquired during the M.Ed. Applied in Digital Learning course.

 

Start planning and writing what you want to happen from the goals, and schedules, in short, everything is well scheduled and written, but during the process, some things happen. So during the implementation of my innovation plan, there were, are, and will be changing. 


Some modifications during the implementation of my innovation plan are: 


Step 1 Preparation –at the beginning of the year-
1.1- Learning
During the learning part, I had no problem doing it. I keep everything the same in this part because it is necessary to know the basics of each part of the pilot project. 
1.2-Technology and apps to use 
In this second part of step 1, I removed some apps like Frog street A to Z, ClassLink, and seesaw. Only I-station continues to be used for regular classes and Starfall for special education. Students cannot use computers in the lab computers; they use iPads.

1.3-Set the goals

The proposed goals satisfied me, but I had to modify the plan. The goal was focused on those children who do not like to read, and it should be focused on all students since reading has many benefits and it is always good to practice it. 


Step 2 Planning –At the beginning of the year- 
2.1 How blended learning enhances reading? 
2.1.1- Rotation Center 
This part of the Rotation center fascinates me. I will consistently implement it since it has many benefits, and the main one is to give our students a more personalized education. Although they are now asking us at the school to implement literacy rotation, the number of stations was modified; instead of four, there are eight since only two students are required in each station. In the morning, students are required to use I-Station reading. In the morning, students have their partner and assigned center according to the Tier and behavior and must change every 15 minutes. During the afternoon, when I-station math is required, students choose where to go and who to play with. 
2.1.2- Flipped Classroom
Due to the lack of responsibility of the parents in accessing the platform with their children, I chose not to do it since I have yet to receive a positive response from tutors. I will meet with the parents in my next innovation plan to explain and support them using the class link platform. I look forward to better success in my next school year.
2.1.3- Lab Rotation
Once a week, students attended the computers lab, where the technology teacher helped students use i-station in reading and math. The computer teacher is an excellent help for the students to learn to use the i-station platform.

 
Step 3 Present Proposal –Two weeks- 
The meeting with the parents did not occur because accessing classlink is part of the responsibilities of the tutors. It is necessary to hold a meeting with the parents to explain the benefits and provide them with support. 


Step 4 Implementation in Classroom with students and collecting data –at the beginning of the year-
With the modifications mentioned above, my innovation plan is being implemented. It is worth mentioning that initially, it was established to collect data every week, but in my school, it is required every month, so data is collected every month, and a form is created for each student per month. Every nine weeks, the graphs with the results of each student are printed from the i-station application and sent home.


Step 5 Coordination with the team –at the end of the scholar year-
5.1- In collaboration with my colleagues and the team leader, we have a meeting where doubts are discussed, and support is given to teachers who have a problem so that we meet the established goals of i-station for math and reading.


Step 6 Implementation, Evaluation, and Time – at the beginning of the following year (2022-2023)-
Each month the progress of the students is evaluated. During PLC, agreements are reached on whether the student needs more time on the iPad and if they need support. My assistants provide personalized support for some students who prefer to use something other than technology. I have students crying this school year because they don't want to use technology. To solve the problem, I held conferences with parents, and now I am waiting for the students' results. 


Step 7 Data collection 
Even my innovation plan is in process, and at the end of the school year, I will collect data and analyze and reflect on the pilot project.

 

To summarize, I am in the process of implementation in class. From the beginning to where I am now, I learned that learning is a day-to-day process and that dedication and effort are required. The experience acquired during the implementation of my innovation plan brought me challenges but, above all, learning where I am changing daily, mainly from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. I also confirm My Learning Manifesto that students deserve an education with love and respect and that we must listen to their voices. My Learning Philosophy and innovation plan are connected as my students are learning in a significant learning environment with love where happy learning is promoted and creativity and play help lifelong learning. I learned that to be a leader, I need to be a model for others. During the process, teachers ask me how do you get students to go to all the centers and for them to choose the station. I explain a little of what I have learned in the courses, and I help them, from improving the classroom environment to how to use the blended learning strategy. I want to add an online course to my next innovation plan. I would also like to add a way to communicate my next innovation plan, which would be through a video where I explain step by step how to implement Blended learning with station rotation to increase learning. Lastly, thanks to learning the word YET, I am satisfied with the difficulties I faced during the process.

Path to Innovation

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