Community-based learning incorporates the community and the immediate environment into the teaching approach. It's not just about bringing a guest speaker into the classroom or sending students to volunteer; it joins the community and allows students to apply academic learning to real-life experiences, creating an authentic student experience. It can be done at any educational level and benefits students, the school,    and the community. I am pleased that this class offers the opportunity to collaborate with my peers in my learning community. 

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My personal journey to contributing to the learning community within this program has had many complex emotions. I have felt frustrated, worried, and uncertain, yet it has been an overall satisfying experience thus far. Participating in the Master's program has been one of the best decisions of my life; challenging myself every day to achieve a goal is exciting. This program will help me strengthen my skills as a teacher that will continue to contribute to my student’s learning. Connecting with a group of individuals in the class has offered me an opportunity to grow as an individual and a student. 

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I cannot overlook the significant meaning that learning about Carol Dweck's Theory had for me when the need for change arose in my classroom. Putting into practice the power of the word Not Yet and seeing how this vision impacts each of my students has been one of my best experiences in this course. Writing the Learning Manifesto was something I enjoyed because it was a moment that made me return to my origins. Remembering my beginnings in this country helped me escape many mixed emotions.

      The discovery and pursuit of the COVA methodology has opened the door to the constant search for personal understanding where the student finds meaning and logic in learning in a meaningful way, becoming authentic because she still answers why and wherefore. The course EDLD 5302 Concept of Education constitutes a detoxification of an ingrained vision of traditional teaching and decontextualized behavioral patterns. It showed me the need to be aware of the inner voice to be authentic.

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       All this prior knowledge constituted the basis and support to apply what was learned in the EDLD 5305 Disruptive Innovation course. I cannot see it separately since it is a systemic process where one does not overlap the other. It is a symbiotic relationship that allows us to visualize. EDLD 5302 Concept of Education provides us with theoretical knowledge, and EDLD 5305 Disruptive Innovation provides us with the necessary tools to transform our reality, innovation proposal, implementation scheme, and more.

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       Therefore, I give myself a grade of 95/100 for EDL 5302 Concept of Education because I have actively participated in all the learning groups since the beginning of the program. I have immersed myself in the needs of members by reviewing assignments and reflecting on contribution reviews, meeting deadlines for different activities scheduled in the calendar, and completing supporting readings and videos for both courses.

Every week, I feel more confident and secure. Finding my wonderful work group, the bilingual girls, fills me with confidence and the desire to apply 100 percent of everything we have learned. Our discussions are insightful and reflective, which has been an invaluable experience. We were able to build connections between our own thoughts and possible students’ perspectives and offer each other alternative perspectives. Each of them (Siary, Yunuen, Joyce, Neylly) has a unique work style, and their contributions have been vital to not dying in these eight weeks! 

We found an organized and efficient way to integrate and work as a team; at the beginning, separately, we were lost. However, everything came together once we started with the weekly meetings, chats, shared files, feedback, and moral support. We became like a well-oiled machine working together for one common goal of being successful in the program. 

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We have a common objective, which was key for our group to be successful; in my opinion, we are all teachers and highly committed to creating an impact on our students; we are all Latinas, and we know the significant challenges.

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 Everything has been an incredible journey, going for a walk from the innovative proposal, the detailed analysis achieved in the development of the literature review, delving into the different investigations about my chosen proposal, station rotation in the two-way dual language modality, and the implementation and strategy in planning and even the contribution to teaching and the community, a reinforcement between each link originated and related, innovative, and creative, between the entire environment and well-being of the community and the camaraderie between student and Instructor.

This plan-based and blended-mode community learning modality can be found at all levels of education. It's important to engage students early to develop relationships that enhance their overall learning experiences, and it's meaningful to engage students as they get older because it keeps them motivated when they can see a role for themselves in the larger social context. Because community-based learning can be done at any level, teachers can easily incorporate strategies into any curriculum. For this reason, I give myself a 95 out of 100 for EDLD 5305 Disruptive Innovation.

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The Modality of Learning is based on different plans and mixed modalities in the community, which I could find at this level of education, it was important to get involved with other students early to develop a relationship that enhanced my overlearning experiences, and as I have become more integrate, my motivations grow by playing an excellent role for themselves in the larges social context, because community-based learning can be done at any level. Teachers can easily incorporate strategies into any curriculum in an e-portfolio.

 

Key Contributions and Support Contributions

Siary Rodriguez, Junuen Malagon, Joyce Torrez, Nelly Guedez, are our tech girls and have contributed extraordinarily to training and ideas.

Siary, Junuen, and Joyce gave us great ideas and are in charge of sending us the links that support our investigations.

Neylly and I are in charge of scheduling Zoom meetings, reviewing the agenda for each meeting, and ensuring that we meet the meeting objectives and the times we establish for each topic.

 

 

Our WhatsApp group allows us to stay connected and make quick contributions.

 

 

 

Improve my Skills

• Reading and typing

I need to improve my comprehension and writing when I write academic texts or specialized topics.

• APA rules

        Updating myself on these standards should be a point to consider.

• Technology

I think I am at an intermediate level, but that is precisely the motivation that led me to start the Master's, so as I am next to a Master's Degree in Ed Digital Learning, technology will be a subject that I will never stop wanting to learn and improve.

 

Improvements in our Group

• In preparation for discussing the topics during our meetings, we need to be more concrete and efficient in managing time.

• Get more feedback and contributions.

 

Our goal is not only to achieve a Master's; it is to be agents of change in our community and thus achieve high results.

I tried to watch all the videos and read all the lectures, maybe one or two I did not do, partly because, in the beginning, I felt overwhelmed and lost; once I understood the importance of these discussions, I was pretty active in the classes and our group meetings.

I loved the creation of blogs and sharing my ideas and vision on different topics; I am anxious to start the school year and share my portfolio and the million ideas that I have with my work group.

I must confess that reading and writing in a language other than my mother tongue was quite challenging; although English has been my working language for eight years, it became a challenge; the academic level is different from the work level; here is an excellent opportunity for improvement.

In conclusion, I feel pleased, satisfied, and proud of everything I have learned, dusted off and updated my intellect, my Innovation Proposal, my established strategies, my foray into this area of ​​technology and its divergences, of learning a method of mixed learning, supported by blended learning.

 

Sincerely, thank you.

References

Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2015). Blended: using disruptive innovation to improve schools.

Jossey-Bass.

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-plcs-can-unleash-the-learning/2021/04

https://blog.online.colostate.edu/blog/uncategorized/the-importance-of-building-online-learning-communities/

https://media.royalroads.ca/owl/media/malat/documents/lrnt-contribution.pdf

https://media.royalroads.ca/owl/media/malat/documents/lrnt-contribution.pdf