Category: Personal

ADL Program, Growth, Learning, Personal, Reflecting

Getting personal

The Advisor That Cares

I find myself re-reading the COVA book and reflecting on my ePortfolio experience and my first semester in the ADL program. Before starting the ADL Program, Dr. Harapnuik’s digital story, Not Suited for School but Suited for Learning, resonated with me and my personal learning experience.

I was in grade school in the 80s in a tiny town. I remember going through diagnostic testing at school, but I couldn’t begin to tell you what any of my diagnoses would have been. I believe my small-town American school was more concerned with hiding my struggles than helping me with them. I definitely adopted the label and the identity of being learning disabled.

I didn’t read my first complete sentence aloud in school until the third grade. In hindsight, I feel Ms. Leffler was an innovative teacher as she was the only one to finally get through to me. I remember how excited and proud she was of me/for me that she took me across the hall to read to my 2nd-grade teacher (undoubtedly after a whole school year of trying with me). Throughout every public school level, I spent many evenings sitting at the kitchen table, crying my eyes out in frustration, just simply not understanding a given subject or assignment. I truly felt I was also not suited for school, and I felt unsuited for learning.

It wasn’t until I transitioned from community college to university that I realized that I was taking classes and accumulating knowledge for my own benefit. I could not only select the days and times of my courses, the electives I chose, and research topics related to my personal interests. I picked a major that I was interested in learning more about and finally freed myself of some of the labels I let define me through high school and community college. As I watched John Hattie’s Visible Learning, I realized what an impact those labels had on my learning (Bell, 2011, 3:38).

If only someone had instilled a growth mindset through the power of yet, as described by Carol Dweck (Stanford, 2014, 4:34). If only I had the opportunity to learn in this constructivist way in my early education, I would approach challenges with excitement. Just as Carol Dweck explained, “learning a growth mindset [transforms] the meaning of effort and difficulty. [What] used to mean they were dumb, and now it means they had a chance to get smarter” (Stanford, 2014, 7:48).

I am very grateful to have this opportunity to get smarter and reevaluate my learning.

Mike Bell. (2011, December 1). John Hattie, Visible Learning. Pt 2: effective methods. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pD1DFTNQf4

Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). Choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning. Creative Common License.

Stanford Alumni. (2014, October 9). Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiiEeMN7vbQ

Gardening, Humor, Personal, Reflecting

Gardening, I think I get it now

The Advisor That Cares
Pictured are two hands, wearing light green gloves. In the upturned hands is small vegetation with dirt and some roots.

Let me correct that. I have not yet gotten the hang of gardening per set, but maybe some of the reason behind gardening.

Looking at the flower garden this Spring, I thought surely the perennials in our pollinator garden were overtaken by the carpet grass, weeds, and other pretty little wild blooms of assorted varieties.

However, as I pulled here and yanked there, I would find I kept finding my little foliaged friends, growing and spreading under the cover nature provided. I found myself welcoming them back and legitimately feeling happy they were back.

ADL Program, Contributions, ePortfolios, Evolution, Growth, Learning, Learning Community, Personal, Reflecting

Hugs

The Advisor That Cares
Two women wearing black shirts embrace in a hug. Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com

I always do my best to shine a little light, encouragement, and love with those willing to connect. Tonight, I stopped at the local drug store. The employee was having a rough night, and I asked how much longer her shift was (10:30 pm with 7 am return).

My husband picked up chocolate peanut butter ice cream, and she said she would come over to cry and help me eat it. She said something about being a hug person, and I lamented how much I also miss hugs.

As I was preparing to leave, I asked, “can I give you a hug?” She accepted and met me at the end of the counter for a genuine hug.

My favorite days are the days I get to hug strangers. I’ve missed it so much.


As I said goodbye to my classmates Tuesday night (our last class meeting), I had to say out loud that I would miss seeing many of them next semester (accelerated post coming soon). Some will be graduating by December, and our classes no longer overlap. Tonight, I reflected on our one-two sessions together, our growth and vulnerabilities.

Then I realized that some of them will walk at the commencement ceremonies. I volunteer at those events and hug strangers at those events. Surely, I will get to meet some classmates at graduation! I started to imagine the next two years! Three ceremonies a year, potentially meeting the people with whom I will undoubtedly grow so much.

  • Who will we be after completing another class? What about two classes from now? Four?
  • Can you imagine looking at our final projects, reflections, innovation plans, and these digital babies (our ePortfolios)?
  • How much will they/we change through the evolution of this program?
  • How are you feeling?
  • Have you taken a good deep breath lately?
  • Have you hugged a stranger? (Okay, I know that the last one’s not for everyone)
ADL Program, Advising, Growth, Personal, Reflecting

Advising Mindset

The Advisor That Cares

This is a difficult time of the advising cycle and seasons for an advisor who cares. As the semester comes to a close, some students are looking forward to commencement. I volunteer at these ceremonies and love connecting with students and their friends/families.

This is the time when degree plan reviews take place, and some students have to be made aware of some university policies, degree plan requirements, and in the worst circumstance that a student is lacking a graduation requirement.

This is where I need to learn better how to equip my students with a growth mindset. I have spent the last 10 days individually reviewing degree audits, enrollment reports, personalized plans, email correspondence, course repeat limits, GPA requirements, and academic standing.

All while working to improve registration procedures, update college departments, alleviate concerns, answer student questions, participate in departmental committee work, and maintain daily tasks.

Oh yeah and there’s this ADL program that I am living. I listen to the Learners Mindset Discussion (LMD) daily in productivity cycles since week four of the current eight-week session. After learning about so many productivity experts and our very own biohacking mentor, I have been inspired to incorporate aspects of engagement management. I guess I’m still lacking on the 25 minutes of something enjoyable, but instead I’ve been blasting some music from my past that I find allows me to zone in and do more of the repetitive portions and getting up for 15-minutes sunshine blasting walks. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate these LMD and the passion our program creators show for our purpose here. It is truly overwhelming to think about who we can be at the end of this program. Personally improved. Professionally improved. Organizationally improved. All we have to do is connect with our why, be willing to fail forward, embrace a growth mindset, and believe in ourselves and our goals passionately enough that we are willing to smash through the wall of fear.

I’m doing my best to move into my personal life as a student with a growth mindset. I’m also looking at this challenging cycle professionally with a growth mindset. What can I learn? How can I improve my communication, the information I share, the amount of outreach? How can I help my students develop a growth mindset when faced with disappointments and challenges?

Do you have any ideas? Suggestions? Thoughts? I would love to hear them in the comments.

ADL Program, Humor, Personal, Reflecting

Well this is really inconvenient

The Advisor That Cares

As I was reading this weeks assigned reading Moving from Time Management to Engagement Management, I was struck with a really inconvenient fact… My husband, is doing things right!

My husband has a work-life balance approach to projects at home. He believes in working a little, playing a little, working a little more, etc. Whereas I tend to pride myself as a multi-tasking fool.

My husband prefers to work in productivity bursts. He will play a video game while doing laundry so that he pairs something he doesn’t want to do with someone he does.

Whereas I prefer to work endlessly until a job is complete. As I evaluated my engagement management, I realized that I was in fact not managing my time or productivity well.

Permit me to use use house cleaning as an example. I will set out to clean the house and may go to the kitchen cabinet to get a cleaning product, then I may notice that the dishwasher needs to be loaded, so I set the cleaning product down on the counter and proceed to load the dishwasher. After washing my hands I may decide that the hand towel needs to be washed so I’ll go start a load of laundry in the washing machine, finally returning to the cleaning product I retrieved from the kitchen cabinet to go wipe down the bathroom counter, and on and on.

I admittedly get frustrated at his play breaks because in my mind just getting it all done in one fell swoop must be more productive. But now I realize that “finding a balance in these types of energy use and replenishment is the key to […] productivity and performance” (Harapnuik, 2021).

Harapnuik, D. (2021, January 4). Moving from Time Management to Engagement Management. Harapnuik.org. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=8494

ADL Program, Growth Mindset, Learning, Personal, Reflecting

Growth Mindset & Yet

The Advisor That Cares

I loved the closing statement in this video…

I have fought the ‘I can’t voice’ for so long, especially when faced with a learning challenge. There is a powerful shift when you add “yet” to that mindset. The growth mindset gives us permission to fail forward. We aren’t expected to be experts “yet.” We are striving to tap into our creative inquisitive thoughts, and try new things. We may not have made meaningful connections, “yet” but we will as we continue to reflect on our learning. Being open to failure frees us to experiment. Developing a growth mindset allows me to view a challenge as an exciting opportunity instead of a punishment. Learning from past attempts encourages me to create connections between concepts which deepens my learning so that I can develop higher order thinking/processing. 100%, I believe the growth mindset will help with the acceptance of feedback. With the growth mindset I realize feedback is an opportunity to correct faulty thinking, make improvements, assess bias, and think more deeply about the suggestions provided.

I am my own worst enemy when it comes to grades. Adopting a growth mindset can release students (myself included) from the perfectionist trap of all of nothing. I really dive head first into researching anything and everything I am interested in learning about. I was raised in a time before search engines so I’m always taking a question and plugging it in to either a search engine or google. So much of the growth mindset resonates with me personally, that I am looking forward to learning more about my own mindset. I learned from my Literature Review research in the innovation course of the ADL Program that using google scholar allows me to see others who have quoted a source and related articles. I think finding related sources or sited by sources would be an effective way to learn more about the growth mindset with relation an interest or innovation. 

Relating it all to life, we have an almost 12 acre property that we are trying to develop into a hobby farm. We don’t know anything about raising animals, building shelters, planning gardens, but we are willing to research (a lot of YouTube) and we use a lot of trial and error projects. I recognize that this growth mindset applies to all aspects of life and learning. 

ADL Program, Humor, Learning, Personal

Down the Rabbit Trail

The Advisor That Cares

I swear I get so lost along the way because I click, click, click, and go deeper down the rabbit trail. I’m struggling this week because I have followed so many links, watched content from this week’s posts/discussions, and prepared for next week’s content. Now I sit here with my notebook full of notes, and I cannot remember which content I am supposed to be posting about in my discussions and blogs. I guess I am missing the point since it all contributes to my learning.

ADL Program, Growth, Innovation Plan, Personal, Professional, Reflecting

Communicating Vision

The Advisor That Cares

I think as a personality trait, I have always had a touch of an innovative spirit. I have often described myself as a bit of an efficiency expert. I always try to tweak systems and processes to be better, clearer, simpler, and more effective in every role I have held. I hope to become an innovative “educator” through my role as an academic advisor. I can confirm that my influence currently does not include meaningful or authentic learning opportunities. Often general information is sent out to students. However, the messaging is the same old, templated messages with very little valuable information.

My innovation proposal seeks to make the information more meaningful for students than generic copy/paste notifications. I also aim to provide a resource that will allow students ownership over locating the information they will need along their academic journey. The programs I advise for have specific paths to program completion, course offerings, and more. However, I believe students often go along with the flow and do not stop to ask essential questions until a substantial investment of time, money, and energy has been spent (or worse, wasted) if they are not on the path they intended. 

Regarding under communication, I agree that because we live in the planning, preparing, researching, meeting, and are party to endless discussions of our innovation/implementation plans, we can make faulty assumptions about how much communication has been shared with our constituents.

The above video makes a good point when it pointed out that we need to remember that sometimes the people we hope to influence are a few steps down the hierarchy. We have to remember that they may not be aware of all the information that has been shared in the prior planning stages. The video made an excellent point that we should all try to keep in mind when communicating about our innovation plan and implementation strategy. We must remember that we are competing with the day-to-day business in their workday. We must constantly send out updates and find other ways to communicate excitement and a sense of urgency about our plan.