While creating everything related to my innovation plan, I learned more about COVA + CSLE and the Growth Mindset, and honed my skills in instructional design. Though I've been busy, learning is a journey and I still have a long way to go.

 

Rolling out an implementation plan in one of the largest school districts in the country is a huge undertaking, especially when the idea is not being implemented from the top-down, but from the bottom up. However, creating organizational change from the bottom up is what the DLL/ADL program is all about.

 

In my plan for leading organizational change, I discuss the steps I need to take to implement my innovation project in my school. I believe that the plan is solid, but I learned that I need to be flexible with what can be accomplished in a certain amount of time, and manage my own expectations for the speed of implementation when colleagues have plans of their own and circumstances beyond my control dictate unforeseen changes (e.g. Covid19).

 

This implementation plan was not my first plan. In fact, I had hoped to start my innovation plan during the 2020-21 school year, but that year everything about how we ran our classrooms changed. My school district went to a hybrid model where I taught in-person students, students live on zoom, and students who completed work asynchronously. Students were able to come and go as they pleased, in class one day, on zoom another day, and asynchronous the next. This could have been a great environment to have an established flipped classroom, but since students didn’t have one place to meet for discussion the class atmosphere was quiet and disjointed. Lessons were short and most assignments were completed asynchronously. Meetings with colleagues were also put on hold. If a meeting needed to happen, it was held on Zoom. From a district perspective, nothing new that wasn’t absolutely necessary was going to roll out.

 

By January of 2021, it was clear that my implementation plan would need to be edited and pushed to the 21-22 school year. I also amended my plan with what I had learned about executing organizational change.

 

During the 21-22 school year, I have been able to tackle several parts of my innovation plan. I have gotten buy-in and approval from the admin to start my action research plan, which includes flipping my classroom, my district has purchased access to several digital tools that allow me to prepare online lessons, and I have written lesson plans that include flipping the lesson and assignments. I even have a few colleagues who have committed to flipping their lessons a couple of times a unit to try the plan out.

 

By changing to the Applied Digital Learning program, I missed the opportunity to take a class about preparing professional development classes to train teachers in the skills they need to implement my innovation plan in their classrooms. However, using the concepts I've learned in the program I have created and delivered professional development classes over EdPuzzle, an application useful in implementing a flipped classroom.

 

I have also started my action research plan and have collected data from students surveys to analyze and make revisions to my plan. I wrote about my students’ initial reactions to the flipped classroom in this article and interviewed one of my colleagues about her experience with flipping her classroom in the podcast I made with my classmate, Jennifer Turnbow. By the end of the 21-22 school year, I should have a fully flipped classroom and have a year of action research data to share with my colleagues.

 

The knowledge I’ve gained in the DLL/ADL program has given me the confidence to implement significant learning environments in future projects. One of the biggest takeaways I have from this program is to research any plan to see where others have had pitfalls and success and to be flexible and adapt my plan when unforeseen changes inevitably happen.