The Wrap-Up
My first 8 weeks in Grad school have been very exhausting, but rewarding. I’ve experienced every emotion, but the genius thing I did was not quit. My initial feeling of inadequacy was extremely high. In group meetings, I would refrain from asking questions and concerns that I possessed in fear of being judged. I remember feeling stuck, confused, and helpless. I was a complete novice to the idea of ePortfolios, but I was determined to learn about this tool of innovation. I understood that others would benefit from the context shift that I would receive, so I took it upon myself to get invested in the process. I became an avid note taker and I began to learn by actually doing experiential training some would call it. I quickly learned that the catalyst behind my anxiety was that I was so fixated on the finished product that I didn’t focus on the growth in between. The small wins were what I should’ve been celebrating along the way because they would’ve helped me create some momentum to keep trudging forward. I can hear the words that Dr. Harapnuik spoke, echoing in my head as I transcribed this course wrap-up. “If you’re working for a grade you’re probably not going to do well.” Hearing those words alone shifted my perspective. From then on it was about my individual growth.
Building my ePortfolio
Building my ePortfolio was a hassle. Due to my ignorance, I paid about $34 more dollars than I had to. Initially, I bought my domain through goddaddy.com. I wasn’t satisfied with the hosting, so I ended up purchasing another domain through bluehost (theserialeducator.net). Once I got the domain situated it was time to get creative. Upon getting feedback from Dr. Harapnuik, who advised me that it would be essential to include the effective and cognitive domain in my content, I decided to incorporate the books that I self-published on amazon, while also including highlights from my basketball career, and some community work. My ePortfolio depicts who I am innately. I quickly saw that my ePortfolio could be a way that I market my individual accomplishments, track my growth in the masters program, and reflect on my collection of experiences. My ePortfolio is an extension of me and it showcases the things that I am most proud of.
Growth Mindset
For me adopting the growth mindset was about silencing my ego and welcoming feedback. Me and my classmates exchanged critiques all course long, from there I came to an understanding that I did have some blindspots or areas I could improve in. Being surrounded by professionals from all different marks of life humbled me because I understood that nobody was here to give destructive criticism. We were all here to better ourselves. The ego can be a double-edged sword, although I’m well aware of the fact that there are some rewards to having vanity, the ramifications of it reign supreme in the early stages of my courses. My pride made me reject some helping hands early on during this course and I believe it set me back.
Time Management vs. Priority Management
The intricacies of this course made me make that shift from time management to priority management. Lera, one of my classmates in our meeting, made a joke in reference to time management, saying that it was non-existent; considering the fact that we were being bombarded with school, work, and home tasks. This made me focus on completing things in the order of importance. It forced me to focus on one task at a time and to not overwhelm myself by thinking about what I had to do in its entirety.
Contributing to my Learning Community
As for group orientation, the personnel in my group were amazing. I feel like we all complemented each other. What I didn’t know, someone else knew, and vice versa. Our group chat was active all semester long, even during class meetings when we would discuss our concerns. I learned that there’s a chance someone may have the same concerns as you do, but sometimes we wouldn’t know it because everybody isn’t willing to voice what is unclear to them, but we built a rapport strong enough to where we could discuss what was bothering us. Lina, Nitra, Ana, Allyson, and Jermecia were all pivotal to my success in both courses. I appreciate that they were always open to helping and their lines of communication was always flexible.
Introducing ePortfolios to Colleagues/Students
I remember the first teacher I pitched my ePortfolio innovation plan to, Ms. Urbaez of Avant Garde Academy. She was preparing her students to do one of their final projects which included them doing a call-to-action video, comic book, poem, or a rap song speaking out against bullying. As I sat there, preparing to deliver our Love Notes Curriculum, something compelled me to unveil my site and express to them the different components of my ePortfolio. They saw that my ePortfolio was compartmentalized into different sections, a blog, about me page, innovation plan, and my community contributions page. After that quick display, the students had a better understanding of who I was as a person and what my aspirations were. Ms. Urbaez’s class was a senior level class, so I instructed the students that there were a lot of studies that showed the benefits that ePortfolios had in the higher education realm. Ultimately, studies show that it increases students’ employability skills, soft skills, and interpersonal skills. All things that are needed for them to cultivate social and emotional intelligence. I learned that through intense research that I engaged in for my group literature review.
During one of my most recent presentations with the Love Notes Curriculum, I was advising my students on ways to sever ties with a relationship that wasn’t conducive to their overall well-being. On my powerpoint slide it stated “Bad ways to break up” and it listed some insensitive, apathetic ways to end a relationship. The biggest thing for me was showing my students how to provide a softer landing for the people that they decided to break up with, avoiding cruelty was ideal. After that specific slide one of students raised her hands in a fast manner and proceeded to say “Mr. Marcus you should create a slide that says, “Bad places to break up.” I responded with a smile on my face how about you create and present it. I remember thinking this could be an artefact on their ePortfolio if administration were to adopt and endorse ePortfolio-based-learning.
Call-to-Action Video
This project was probably the most appealing to me. I use to curate content for fun, so I had a little bit of experience creating voice overs and compilation videos. I always knew how to evoke emotion and that was a big part of the assignment. Knowing this would be one of the cornerstones of my innovation plan I knew I had to deliver. I sourced stock videos, from pexels.com, pulled them in to adobe premiere, added transitions with a solid voiceover. The feedback that I got from my classmates was top tier. They had a way of assuring me that my work was decent because I always managed to overthink.