Grading on a Curve

As educators and instructors, grading individual’s work is a very common task that participate in daily. However, it’s not a common thing for us to ask to grade our work and performance as I will be doing in the next few paragraphs. For many of us, we tend to be our own worst critics and I certainly fall into that category, but I also want to make sure I’m fair to myself. With that being said, the assessment score that I will be supporting is 80-89. The overall reason for assessing this score is the criteria of missing one key contribution and/or supporting contribution set forth. As I continue my educational journey, I look forward to greatly improving my overall contributions to my learning community and my self-assessment of that input.

Reflection and Feedback to Improve

When it comes to working in and contributing to a learning community what you get back is just as important if not more important than what you put in. I felt that the most impactful contribution and entity that worked the most was the group’s reflections and feedback on each other’s work. “The value of receiving and providing effective feedback cannot be overstated in a world whereby progress is driven by continuous learning” (Ryan, 2023, para. 1). Having the opportunity to view others’ work and reflect on things to incorporate or remove from your work, really helps you laser in on what you want to achieve and/or say through your projects. In both 5313 and 5389, I was able to use some of my experience as a military instructor to help some of my classmates with their course activities and assessments as well as their PL plans.  A great example of reflection and feedback in our learning community would be the submittal of our PL strategy in course 5389 to our discussion board so that we could all get a glimpse into some fresh learning and design ideas. This was a huge help and gave me a lot of confidence as well as great ideas that I could include in my strategies and plans going forward.  I appreciated the critiques and advice I received from classmates like Steven Munoz and Joseph Perrone, as those things went a long way in my development throughout the course. Another extremely beneficial collaboration tool, classmates made their assignments available through group chat allowing everyone the opportunity to give and receive substantial input on things that worked as well as some tweaks or changes that could be made.  I can’t say enough about just how helpful the discussion board was, especially in 5313. The discussions covered a lot of course material, so when classmates like Christy Silkin and Melinda Gonzalez would give responses, the incite would always lend itself directly to things that could be utilized in my development in the course.  I routinely collaborated with on both assignments and discussion boards Shaquitta Lewis, Adaliz Barroso Torrado, Melinda Gonzalez, and Christy Silkin. Throughout these two courses, all my classmates I collaborated with provided priceless reflection and feedback that helped me grow in my learning journey.

Changing What Needs Changing

Working in a learning community can prove to be quite challenging, especially when it comes to collaboration timing and communication. “Creative collaboration is a critical component to project-based learning and design thinking. But it’s not as simple as assigning members to teams and then walking away. Collaboration is hard work because it’s deeply relational and all relationships have challenges” (Spencer, 2024, para 1). With everyone having different circumstances going on in their lives, communication, even with all the different options can be challenging to keep consistency. For me, with working full-time and being an instructor in the military, I have struggled with my timing regarding group collaboration. This is an issue that many of my classmates have voiced they struggle with as well. In the future, I think that me and some of my community learning team members can greatly improve on this issue by better scheduling to make up for the day-to-day challenges all our personal lives present.

My Contributions

As a member of the learning community for this course as well as my other courses, I pride myself in offering helpful ideas and feedback that my team members can effectively utilize for their educational growth. “To create an environment where people feel their contributions are valued, encourage full authentic selves by establishing psychological safety, create a welcoming environment, give people independence in their job, recognize mistakes as learning opportunities and create a supportive culture” (Redziniak, 2021, para. 6). Whenever a classmate shared their work, I always tried to encourage and thank them for sharing their work, while making sure that I gave them some ideas that they could reflect on even if they ultimately chose to go in a different direction. With my learning, I focused on expanding my learning ideology. Talking to classmates and studying the impact of a growth mindset has allowed me to alter my vision of learner, educator, and leader for the better. Learning collaboratively is not something that comes naturally to me but I’m truly better because of it and eagerly look forward to further progression.

Reference

Redziniak, Sms. E. (2021, May 19). The benefits of encouraging contribution among team members. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center. https://www.aflcmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2622129/the-benefits-of-encouraging-contribution-among-team-members/

Ryan, B. (2023, August 14). Why is constructive feedback important? Thirst. https://thirst.io/blog/why-is-constructive-feedback-important/

Spencer, J. (2024, October 17). The five biggest pitfalls of collaborative grouping (and how to avoid them). John Spencer. https://spencereducation.com/group-collaboration-next-level/

Group Collaborations