What Have I Done?

With this post, I am wrapping up my fourth class in the DLL program. One-third of the way to my master's degree in education. My master's degree in education. That phrase has always intrigued me. I don't know if this is true for other languages, but I love the way that, in English, we tend to say "I'm working on my PhD," or "I'm getting my HVAC license" as opposed to, say, "I'm working on a master's degree." It's a very optimistic way of phrasing it--it expresses an assumption that there's a high school diploma, a bachelor's degree, a tech certification, a doctorate, whatever, just waiting out there for each and every one of us, and meant just for us. We don't have to create it out of thin air. We just have to take the steps to go get it.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals and Where to Find Them

In my innovation plan, I have proposed an online Technology-Assisted Music course for my district. There will be a year-long version for students, and a quarter-long professional development version for teachers, aimed at helping these teachers bring the ideas of a growth mindset and creative thinking into their own disciplines and learning environments. The entire innovation plan can be found here; below you will find the learning outcomes and learning and assessment activities for the teacher-targeted professional development version of the course, as well as a description of the driving motivation behind the plan, expressed in the form of what Collins describes, here and in many other places, as a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or BHAG (2018).