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Leveled Journal Samples: Working Copy

XEDU 10002: The Educational Professional II
Journal #4: Final Course Synthesis

Student: Gillianne Calpito

Professor: Joanne Sampson
Mount Royal University
November 21, 2017
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My journey for my fall school semester has been very thought-provoking both physically and

mentally. Throughout the semester I have observed, engaged, and critically absorbed how I

have grown professionally and personally through experiences and resources, such as research

and textbook course readings within the class. One of the main ideas I have learned in the class is

bloom's taxonomy and its cognitive domains. I often think of this model as a staircase because

as a students abilities from just knowledge (recall and shallow processing) to creativity

(complex and deep processing). This made me think of how much growth I have seen in my

practicum and field experience classes of the difference between remembering,

understanding, application, analysis, evaluation, and creation. It is the lens of understanding

for me, and how others think of situations and growth as a learner (Triangulation).

For me, I have seen growth in those areas as well because instead of just conducting an

observation and being passive in my learning through school and experiences I use semantics in

order to make those experiences meaningful and purposeful. I often ask myself as a Universal

design of learning (UDL) learner as to why I am here? What will I observe? What can I do

about a situation? How can I ask for advice and guidance? What is my role in the classroom?

How can I be an effective and adoptive in my role as an educational assistant in the classroom?

What would make me stand out with others whom have my qualifications? To me, inquiring

open ended questions provide a layout of what, who, where, and how my professional growth

came to be and to where do I need to continue my focuses on for continued growth. It is the you

do, I do, and we do aspect of collaborative critical thinking with ourselves, the mentor

teachers lens, and also the curriculum lens.

One other thing I learnt during my holistic educational experiences is to be persistent, and

never give up. I know there are some days I get confused on how to do and how to conduct
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myself in a manner that suits the classroom environment. Sometimes I can tell if the teacher is

frustrated and I am not sure what to or that sometimes my grades in the class at not at par with

my expectations. So in the face of adversity, I will keep continuing to learn, encourage

feedback, and inspire my own growth in order to inspire others as well. This relates to the

backward design in class discussions because in order to more forward we plan for our smart

goals and outcomes of our actions. This is through communication with the mentors and

expectations. This is making learning visible (Hattive).

Some other experiences that lead to growth are from our in-class discussions and our SRG

groups. For example, some of the class discussions talked about valuable resources to utilize in a

way that enhances learning such as the role of keeping an IPT record, diigo.com, google sites

for our personal learning plan, and the program of studies that let us seek learning outcomes for

students in a particular grade level in Alberta. Those are all very useful resources to go back and

reflect as to how to complete assignments but also knowledge and praxis about how we can use

those resources in our professional careers as educational assistants. Also for SRGs, it is also

helpful to talk about experiences and collaborating with thoughts and ideas for it.

One of the best ways, however, that I found was probably the most useful resource in the

class is guest speakers. Their sources of knowledge, background, and experiences enables us to

capture how people became successful in their careers and how they give back to community

with integrity. Their own personal journey and what lead to them how they became to be gives

the data and information they present us personality. I take great pleasure in learning about

people, their lives, their opinions, and why they do what they do. I remember one quote from a

guest speakers Learn more and talk less. This to me, is similar to a saying We have two

ears and one mouth. We should listen twice as much than we speak. Those quotes mean
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being professional by listening and understanding on other voices rather than to debate on if our

voices should be bigger than everyone else's.

Also, everyone is different and lives individualized lives. This to me was also a very

important lesson as we encounter people on a daily basis there are certain things we learn about

those people. With students, I have seen patterns in their thoughts, behaviour, and actions in

situations during the classroom setting. It is very powerful to have a connection with people as it

brings stronger relationships. That being said, one of the greatest things I have learnt in class

are the relationships and connections within all of our relations. This analogy and practice goes

beyond the schema of educational psychology and learning outcomes (not to say those are not

important) but the essence of human connection truly makes us align as a community, and

more simply, human beings. The desire to connect, interact, and empathize with others

revolutionizes our experiences with getting to know ourselves and how to work with others.

So record our experiences we have used journals in the class. Journaling has become an

impactful tool for me to record experiences in field experiences and my practicum. Reflecting

back on my experiences I have seen and connected the way the course holistically approaches in

practical experiences. In fact, the knowledge obtained and acquired in the course has enhanced

the real-life experiences during to experiences since you get to really feel, see, and think about

topics such as classroom management, historical contexts of education, legal documents of

the ATA and code of conduct, curriculum, lesson planning, and classroom assessment. Those

topics come into play simultaneously because the classroom itself is like a living system with

many little systems (The students life).

It is an ever changing, adaptive, flexible machine with many mechanisms that contribute to

student learning, and how both the teacher and Educational Assistant provide livable function
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within. It is hard to keep track of everything for journals but the most important experiences to us

stick out and we tend to remember those experiences prominently. However, human memory is

not perfect or accurate but recording our experiences the best we could uses cognitive, affective,

and physical functions. The mere process of writing something down stimulates and even

enhances memory. This is dynamic of taking control of your own education and experiences

not only is good for memory but something to personalize or signature your work.

The ways journaling has changed my thoughts and ideas were that after I have finished writing

down my journals and logs is that I read them after. This shows to me my progress from how I

write notes, how much I write, the details I write about with, the words, and even how I organize

my thoughts. Also, more importantly of how I conducted myself in certain situations in the

classroom. It gives me time to reflect on what went well, what did not, what other approaches

I can seek. It is as if I was a bird looking down at many viewpoints of what I did on those events

and triangulate perspectives of how I could do better. Self-evaluation is key and encouraging

feedback is also another way to learn when journaling. Surely, I could just do a catharsis of

words on a journal but I would like to make logical sense of describing what actually had

happened and what I did in the class. Finally, I would like to say that journaling is a must if I

want to keep track of cognitive, and behavioural processes in my own professional growth.

Writing a journal connects to my own personal beliefs and values to self-assess if what I am

actually doing in the experiences reflect to my own personal thoughts and my modeling. My

read Aloud is also an example of this because not only do I assess the child but assess myself

too.
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Resource
Edmunds, A. L., Badley, K., & Nickel, J., (2014). History of education.
In Educational foundations in Canada (pp. 166-205). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.