To be honest, I have always been faced with many different experiences (as I am sure we all have) but it was the loss of my closest friend to brain Cancer that made me start to re-evaluate my future. To provide context; I have a group of gals (10 of us) that have been friends for 7 plus years (it was our boy's hockey that initially connected us). One girlfriend in the group was diagnosed with colon cancer that took a turn for the worse in 2022 after a 6-year battle. I am going to be brutally honest. I reevaluated my life in it's truest form (work /life balance) and realized that "Life is truly short". I know it sounds like a cliche but "take the trip, eat the cake and buy the shoes" (author unknown).

As an intermediate teacher, I am looking to expand my professional horizons, travel, work abroad and teach on a virtual basis. As we always say to our 5 kids, "Family will always find you, no matter where you live and Home will always be wherever we are".                

MDDE 602 - Research Methods in Distance Education - Understanding the research process. This course almost made me quit my Masters. Joking but not joking. I did not do well in Stats in University and the idea and understanding of qualitative research and quantitative research was confusing and difficult for me to comprehend. It did however manage to get me thinking about differentiating between small-r ("informs my knowledge") and big-R research ("adds to the collective knowledge held by society"). I wanted to discuss this course because it was a course I did incredible growth with (especially with my knowledge and understanding).

MDDE 604 - Instructional Design in D.E. - The ISD project I created was based on both instructor-led and self-directed learner. As an educator and having experienced the life of Covid (watching my students and at times myself) with the face-to-face connectivity or lack thereof..... I feel a mixture of both synchronous and asynchronous learning will provide me with a mix of connections and online module opportunities. I chose this artefact because, during my module creation, I was able to make sure that:

1. All students can succeed.

2. Each student has his or her unique pattern of learning.

3. Classroom teachers are the key educators for a student's literacy and numeracy development

MDDE 612 - Experiential Learning - In this course and upon my reflection, I was finding through fault of my own that I did not reflect on my learning enough. “Learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world” (Kolb et al, 2014 Pg. 9) is an integrated functioning of the whole person where thinking, feeling, perceiving and behaving should be part of your reflection process. I chose this artefact because this course offered me a chance to put background knowledge of the curriculum into fruition.

MDDE 622 - Openness in Education - For this course and as I continued my studies, understanding OER (Open Education Resources) allowed me to promote personalized learning experiences, and have more control over my learning. This included self-paced learning, including choosing my topics of interest (i.e. Jasper and Banff for Assignment #1), and setting my own learning goals as I went through the course.

MDDE 631 - Inclusive Leadership & Practice in Education - This was truly my favourite course! This was all about collaboration on a final group project! And upon investigating different leadership theories I was drawn to emergent leadership. As a group member, within an education organization, I see a need for direction, therefore, my leadership style allows me the confidence and knowledge to step up for a specific task. For example, there is always a need to support many activities within our school walls. (i.e., volleyball coach or organizing a school dance). Reflecting on my style allowed me to be valuable, and dynamic in an ever-changing school environment where the ability to lead by example, adapt, and collaborate is essential for success.