I needed a cup of coffee emoji for a walk-and-talk active learning session (because, of course!), and I stumbled upon this GOLD!!
Did you already know?!?!?! I was 100% unaware that emojipedia was a thing in existence and I feel like my life is somehow better now for it.
My department is going through so many simultaneous changes right now. It is difficult for many to adapt and adjust. Still, I am doing what I can to share my heart, highlight the opportunities, and allow everyone to propose solutions.
I have witnessed firsthand the panic caused by sit-and-get training. Over the last several weeks, individual teams have come together to receive an overview of each other’s degree plans and departments and to build a collaborative network of support by grouping majors into career clusters and communities of interest, also known as meta-majors. This change poses a complete shift in everything our advising unit has ever done. It requires that advisors expand beyond specializing in one to a few majors to an entire catalog of majors based on four broad categories (arts, communication, and education; business and industry; public service; or science, technology, engineering, and math).
Add to this challenge that our office desperately needs more staffing due to several departmental challenges, including a complete restructuring and new leadership.
The restructuring has provided leadership opportunities at every level. Some have arisen to the challenge, and I can hear hopefulness in their voices again. Some are still overwhelmed and doing their best to hold on for the learning ahead of us. Our advising unit has a long history of high turnover. Party because only a few people understand what goes into academic advising and the high demands of the profession. Others are looking to begin a career at an institution of higher learning, and advising is a common entry point for those with a degree. Many in our advising unit are working outside of their degree areas. Several advisors are either working toward, hold a graduate degree, or have multiple degrees because they understand the value of an education. They flourish as the leaders and teams embrace the opportunity to build solutions to advising challenges.
As I watch the team members working together, I see healing happening. I see a positive workplace culture forming. I see such great brainstorming and communication happening all across the advising unit. I see individuals that no longer feel like separate islands doing their own thing. Instead, I see warriors dressing for battle, determined to make it through the challenges and frustrations that change brings to make things even better than they were before.
As advisors find hope in a supportive environment, I see a team that will embrace change in the future as an opportunity.
“There is nothing permanent except change”
— Heraclitus
I am well into my graduate program, and I see with clarity how well-designed this program has been crafted. We are living-learning opportunities that we can apply to our specific situation (Principle 5, by the way). Throughout every step of the program, I have reflected that I feel torn between two audience options (students and colleagues).
My innovation was selfishly born out of my desperate need to meet the needs of my learners (students/advisees). Feeling worn out, abused, disrespected, and undervalued as a knowledgeable resource to many frustrated students and as a professional – I desperately wanted to increase student motivation to seek information for themselves. Acknowledging the often complicated and multi-sourced ways to process information and situations, my ePortofolio sought to provide an easy-to-locate resource that consolidated all those sources by topic and included personal tips and advice that I would give during an advising appointment on the subject. I found myself so inspired (and challenged) by the UbD Template. Building understanding and intrinsic motivation into my advisees/learners through the design of every interaction opportunity. Creating a resource that is available when common questions arise to create a ubiquitous resource available anytime (i.e., peak advising season when I could have slower response times or in the middle of the night on a drop deadline).
As much as I advocate for students, I also have an advocate’s heart for my fellow advisors. I cannot even begin to describe the amount of information advisors relay. The unfortunate reality is that sometimes these professionals are underprepared and uninformed, thereby affecting students in their learning journey. I want advisors to be knowledgeable, and I want them to have connections across the institution so that we can guide students in their academic journey. As I begin to plan how to utilize going training and continual support to truly innovate advising through this first of many professional learning opportunities.
I have tried to describe my innovation to others and wondered if it is innovative. However, as I approach this professional learning task, I am seeing exactly what I had in mind for my innovation idea. As advisors experience choice, ownership, and voice through an authentic learning environment, they will have a greater opportunity to provide that for their learners/advisees. I see now that my learners are a team of advisors who have a wonderful opportunity to impact the lives of their learners. They can change the world one learner at a time.
This weekend has been a productive weekend of reminding myself that I am a self-directed learner. You see, I have gotten myself into a stagnant rut waiting for a piece of feedback, thinking that the outcome of that decision determined whether or not I could move on to the next. You see, I had shifted my learning focus to look for the sage on the stage.
I stopped to think back on my learning process. I remember that when I encounter new material in the ADL program, I typically go to YouTube and search for videos on the topic. I typically start with the Learners Mindset or Dwayne Harapnuik channel and then branch out on tangents. In my searching and video watching on the topic of Professional Learning, I found my way to a playlist LMPL (Learners Mindset Professional Learning). This was a bit like watching a clip show because I recognized so many conversations, but it was exactly what I needed to get my head straight again.
While the guide on the side would be a welcome addition to my learning journey, it is not how I learn. Learning is up to me. I accomplish my goals by focusing on my audience, why, and innovation. Going through this playlist allowed me to think about my professional learning opportunity and really translate how I can utilize COVA+CSLE and everything I have learned and created up to this point to put together a cohesive Professional Learning Plan.
This is an overwhelmingly huge task because of the scope of my innovation project and my department’s current restructuring. There are many unknown factors, an entire culture to help build, and so much trust to win. Nonetheless, what better way to make this a truly authentic task. Not to mention having an immediate impact on my organization. Moving forward in this endeavor, I am keeping Dr. Thibodeaux’s advice in my mind. Hearing her reassurance that I “don’t have to have everything planned out perfectly” and her confirmation that I will “make adjustments as [I] go” as I identify “what works [and] what doesn’t work” finding my way as I learn “how to work with other people” (Learners Mindset, 2020, 8:40). This is something that we get to create together. It will evolve as we go, but I do not need to wait for confirmation and feedback to move forward with creating my outline and looking ahead to my professional learning plan.
Reference
Learners Mindset. (2020, May 25). LMD EP18 COVA professional learning [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved February 11, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpBIGWgMfLY
Well what do you know, yesterday marked one year since this ePortfolio was created.
“A call to passion” is exactly what Developing Effective Professional Learning means to me. I am so excited to share professional learning with each of you! We have the overwhelming honor of helping others utilize their passions through the adventure of learning. Together.
As a student, beginning a new chapter of life can be overwhelming. You are an adult, which you have been looking forward to for as long as you can remember. But you are also stepping outside of your comfort zone. Really finding yourself. Discovering who you want to be without the primary inputs that previously surrounded you.
As advisors, we are honored to help guide students as they begin University life. My research shows that the advising relationship is significant to students’ perseverance through what can be a challenging adjustment. Nevertheless, how many times has this significance escaped you? How often have you felt like a broken record? How exhausting can it be for you and the student as you frantically attempt to cover so many things? Just a few examples come to mind like the university’s policies and procedures; system access and onboarding; information about the program, department, and academic college; outlining course options, prerequisite sequences, and electives selections; confirming career goals for major alignment, not to mention informing students of the multiple support resources and offices across campus. How often do we find ourselves desperately trying to get to know our students on the walk to our office or in the brief moments before or after the information download I just described? When are we supposed to find that moment to connect with them so that we can help them make meaning of their learning, struggles, and opportunities to grow?
We can embrace professional learning by moving away from the current professional development model. We can find personal relevance and engage passions as our mission resonates. Doing so requires that our support be ongoing. We want to give good training, but don’t want to stop there. We want to build teams with peer coaching that happens throughout implementation. We can encourage active engagement, and we can model our new skills. As we do these things, we will see an increase in adaptability to our specific situations and even more adoption of our innovation. We need frequent communication to know what is working and what needs improvement.
As we embrace this new professional learning model, we will find success in addressing challenges, improving delivery methods, and creating time and space for advisors to do what they do best, connect with students.
As a student, it can be very overwhelming to begin a new chapter of life. You are an adult, which you have been looking forward to for as long as you can remember. But you are also stepping outside of your comfort zone. Really finding yourself. Discovering who you want to be without the primary inputs that previously surrounded you.
As advisors, we are honored to help guide students as they begin University life. My research has shown that the advising relationship is significant to students’ perseverance through what can be a challenging adjustment. Nevertheless, how many times has this significance escaped you? How often have you felt like a broken record? How exhausting can it be for you and the student as you frantically attempt to cover so many things? Just a few examples come to mind like the university’s policies and procedures; system access and onboarding; information about the program, department, and academic college; outlining course options, prerequisite sequences, and electives selections; confirming career goals for major alignment, not to mention informing students of the multiple support resources and offices across campus. How often do we find ourselves desperately trying to get to know our students on the walk to our office or in the brief moments before or after the information download I just described? When are we supposed to find that moment to connect with them so that we can help them make meaning of their learning, struggles, and opportunities to grow.
Through an Innovation to Advising, we can provide relationships that provide reassurance and guidance throughout each student’s academic journey.
Join me, and together we can make a difference.
The most wonderful aspect of the ADL program is constant reflection. As I sit here trying to identify a professional learning opportunity, what aspect of my innovation ideas to begin with, how to introduce my ideas to my audience, and so much more, I have once again challenged myself to re-identify my audience and re-examine my why.
Living the learner’s mindset means that even though it would be easy to tell myself I have already done the work on both topics, this is an ever-evolving process of “higher-order thinking” and “meaning-making.” Precisely the objectives of this program, the objectives of learning, and the objectives when teaching.
The theme that always resonates throughout this process for me is authenticity. I am attempting to share my heart with the world. I strive to find, refine, and articulate my passion for helping others. As I check my notes on the research I’ve recently reviewed regarding professional development and the 5 Principles of Professional Learning (Guluamhussein, 2013), it is the ACT/ACTION part of the learning process that particularly resonates with me.
You see, learning wasn’t easy for me. Wait, let me rephrase that. Education wasn’t easy for me. I was lost and behind most of the time. I received low grades and had very low self-esteem due to tying my personal worth to other people’s approval. I spent my early adulthood being taken advantage of due to an overwhelming need to people-please. At one point, I had three adult friends living in a three-bedroom apartment with me while I was the only one working, paying bills, buying groceries, and cleaning.
If these same principles had been applied in my learning journey, I would have had more prolonged exposure to new concepts. Instead of exponentially falling behind, I would be bolstered by significant assistance. I was constantly missing the aspects of understanding needed to transfer the information from the lessons into learning. As a result, almost everything seemed irrelevant and out of reach.
Here is a fun example of exactly what I mean about active, ongoing, thought-provoking learning. See if you can make it all the way to the reflective/active learning part.
Now as a catalyst for change, I want to do better for others. I want to make learning meaningful and relevant to them. As a leader, I want to support my team through changes. I want to model the ways that I hope they will, in turn, support their teammates and students.
Reference
Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers: Effective Professional Development in the Era of High Stakes Accountability. National School Board Association, Center for Public Education.
The Advisor That Cares 