Capstone Portfolio Journey Journal - Module One Reflections:
"Education is not an affair of 'telling' and being told, but an active and constructive process."
- John Dewey (1859-1952)
"Education is not an affair of 'telling' and being told, but an active and constructive process."
- John Dewey (1859-1952)
Sunday, January 17th, 2021:
Welcome to my Capstone Portfolio course journal! Here you will find my informal thoughts, ideas, emotions, and other stream-of-consciousness-related musings as I experience the Capstone Portfolio course module-by-module during the Spring semester of 2021. I have found journaling to be an essential and effective ingredient in my reflective practice. Journaling has allowed me to approach each of my courses over the last three years through a more critical lens with a more meaningful and richer depth of field. It has aided me in sorting out my ideas - the good from the bad, the shallow from the deep - to brainstorm, to being a catalyst of new-and-improved inquiry and conclusions. Journaling has allowed my learning and thought processes to venture from the more shallow regions of my mind's ocean to a deeper and more meaningful and far more impactful depth.
I greeted Module One with all of the excitement and energy you would expect from someone entering their tenth and final course as a learner in the Michigan State University Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program. In fact, it reminded me of those feelings I had some 25 years ago (no, that is not a typo - 25 years) when I was preparing to complete my bachelor's degree and graduate from the University of Maryland at College Park way back in December of 1996. That same ephemeral sense of accomplishment, those thoughts of what the experience of all my learning really means, about how will I apply everything this new found knowledge, and the uncertainty of where my educational journey will take me next all began to set in and were circling around in my mind just as they did back in 1996.
I have never taken a Capstone course before and, while I searched around the web a bit to get an idea of what my course might entail, I never thought that it would be yet another transformative learning opportunity that had the possibility of extending well beyond the walls of the classroom. My expectation for the Capstone Portfolio course (or should I say my fear) was that it was going to be the production of many multi-page papers with foreboding deadlines. I was so wrong, and I can honestly say that I have never been so thrilled to have been so wrong, after I figured out what we were actually going to be creating. Part of the reason for this excitement has to do with the relevance of what we will be creating. What are we creating? You are looking at it right now! :-) For years I have thought about how to integrate all the different facets of my life, from the educational to the professional to the personal, into a single pane of glass...and the Capstone Portfolio course has at long last presented me with this opportunity.
The course is about so much more than producing another essay or critical analysis on pedagogy. It is an opportunity for me, as a learner, to produce an online showcase with endless reach that can, if I execute on it correctly, celebrate not just my work and experiences at Michigan State University, but throughout my personal and professional life span. It's an opportunity for me to curate all of my life's passions and accomplishments into a single repository where others can gain a sense of who I am and what I am about. That is really my goal for the Capstone Portfolio course: to blend together the academic, the personal, and the professional under a single heading that captures all of the different chapters of my life that might someday serve as my digital memoir and archive. Until then, however, my Capstone Portfolio project will be a living and breathing compendium of who I am and all the pieces needed to put together my personal puzzle.
I would also like to close out my Module One journal entry by thanking you for taking the time to stop by and to learn about who I am as a learner, an educator, a coach, and the many other different roles that make up my life.
Welcome to my Capstone Portfolio journey! #capstoneisfun
Cheers,
Travis
Welcome to my Capstone Portfolio course journal! Here you will find my informal thoughts, ideas, emotions, and other stream-of-consciousness-related musings as I experience the Capstone Portfolio course module-by-module during the Spring semester of 2021. I have found journaling to be an essential and effective ingredient in my reflective practice. Journaling has allowed me to approach each of my courses over the last three years through a more critical lens with a more meaningful and richer depth of field. It has aided me in sorting out my ideas - the good from the bad, the shallow from the deep - to brainstorm, to being a catalyst of new-and-improved inquiry and conclusions. Journaling has allowed my learning and thought processes to venture from the more shallow regions of my mind's ocean to a deeper and more meaningful and far more impactful depth.
I greeted Module One with all of the excitement and energy you would expect from someone entering their tenth and final course as a learner in the Michigan State University Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program. In fact, it reminded me of those feelings I had some 25 years ago (no, that is not a typo - 25 years) when I was preparing to complete my bachelor's degree and graduate from the University of Maryland at College Park way back in December of 1996. That same ephemeral sense of accomplishment, those thoughts of what the experience of all my learning really means, about how will I apply everything this new found knowledge, and the uncertainty of where my educational journey will take me next all began to set in and were circling around in my mind just as they did back in 1996.
I have never taken a Capstone course before and, while I searched around the web a bit to get an idea of what my course might entail, I never thought that it would be yet another transformative learning opportunity that had the possibility of extending well beyond the walls of the classroom. My expectation for the Capstone Portfolio course (or should I say my fear) was that it was going to be the production of many multi-page papers with foreboding deadlines. I was so wrong, and I can honestly say that I have never been so thrilled to have been so wrong, after I figured out what we were actually going to be creating. Part of the reason for this excitement has to do with the relevance of what we will be creating. What are we creating? You are looking at it right now! :-) For years I have thought about how to integrate all the different facets of my life, from the educational to the professional to the personal, into a single pane of glass...and the Capstone Portfolio course has at long last presented me with this opportunity.
The course is about so much more than producing another essay or critical analysis on pedagogy. It is an opportunity for me, as a learner, to produce an online showcase with endless reach that can, if I execute on it correctly, celebrate not just my work and experiences at Michigan State University, but throughout my personal and professional life span. It's an opportunity for me to curate all of my life's passions and accomplishments into a single repository where others can gain a sense of who I am and what I am about. That is really my goal for the Capstone Portfolio course: to blend together the academic, the personal, and the professional under a single heading that captures all of the different chapters of my life that might someday serve as my digital memoir and archive. Until then, however, my Capstone Portfolio project will be a living and breathing compendium of who I am and all the pieces needed to put together my personal puzzle.
I would also like to close out my Module One journal entry by thanking you for taking the time to stop by and to learn about who I am as a learner, an educator, a coach, and the many other different roles that make up my life.
Welcome to my Capstone Portfolio journey! #capstoneisfun
Cheers,
Travis
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