My Purpose

Author: Taylie Shaw

I have submitted this for my reasoning for creating this blog:

Original Contribution Paper Reflection

Upon reflecting on my Educational Leadership experiences with the American College of Education (ACE), I realized one of the best ways that I could produce an original contribution to create a professional blog. Through this activity, I could venture into something new that I have never tried before. I have taught professional development and I have written a ton of papers, but I have never expressed myself and my leadership abilities in a blog format before. My entire experience at the American College of Educational can be summed up in one word: growth. Therefore, there was not better way to create an original contribution that stepping out of my comfort zone to create something that I have never done before. Leaders must “continually seek new pedagogies and redefine traditional tools used to support developing skills that can increase efficacy for themselves and others” (Gilbert, Voelkel, & Johnson, 2018, p. 154). Throughout my experiences, I have grown and I want this original contribution to be an example of my growth at ACE and beyond.

Summary of Original Contribution

When I began thinking about what type of original contribution I could make, I decided a blog would be a great way to start something new. Throughout my experiences at ACE, I have continuously pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I have created a blog with original thoughts, written by myself, about educational leadership and growth. There is a risk in creating something entirely one’s own and putting it out into the world to be judged. However, in doing so, I know I am growing and learning a new skill. Prior to starting this adventure with the blog, I had never created a website before.

Logistics

When I decided to create my own blog and webpage to post my contributions, I first had to decide who my target audience is. I want to share my work and experiences with future ACE students and with teachers within my school and school district who may want to go through the ACE program. I have asked my principal to share my blog in this week’s weekly principal email. This is a way to start getting people to go and read through my past experiences along with my ideas about leadership and growth.

There are many, many, many different websites that can be used for blogging. I decided to use WIX. WIX allows for the free creation of websites and it is completely customizable. I researched quite a few websites before creating https://tayliems.wixsite.com/taylieshaw. Again, now that I have a website, it still needs visitors. “Leaders influence the lives of many and impact success” (Fleck, Threeton, & Ewing, 2019, p. 41). As such, I hope that my website can get enough exposure to impact people. I will get a few visitors from my principal sending out the link to the staff in the weekly email. However, I still will need more exposure. I have also posted this link to my LinkedIn profile in hopes of getting more exposure for the blog.

Outcomes

As far as outcomes go, I am hoping for a few. I am hoping for more personal growth as I continue to post and reflect on my experiences of educational leadership. Further, I am hoping the someone benefits from my experiences and posts from the blog. I hope to continue this for years to come. It will push me to stop, and reflect, on my experiences as I continue my education and leadership experiences.

Conclusion

Overall, throughout this experience, I have learned more about myself and my experience at ACE as I have written, and reflected, about them for the blog. “Reflection promotes mindfulness and self-awareness” (Branch & George, 2017, p. 349). Reflection is a crucial part of the education process. Further, I have been able to step out of my comfort zone by trying something more technology based. I have also put my own, original, thoughts and research out into the real world for people to judge and respond to. In conclusion, I now have something to continuously update which will lead to continuous growth even after my coursework ends.

References

Branch, W. T., Jr, & George, M. (2017). Reflection-Based Learning for Professional Ethical

Formation. AMA Journal Of Ethics, 19(4), 349–356. https://doi.org/10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.4.medu1-1704

Gilbert, K. A., Voelkel Jr., R. H., & Johnson, C. W. (2018). Increasing self-efficacy

through immersive simulations: Leading professional learning communities. Journal of Leadership Education, 17(3), 154–174. https://doi.org/10.12806/V17/I3/R9

Fleck, J. A. ., Threeton, M. D. ., & Ewing, J. C. . (2019). Important Leadership Skills for

Career and Technical Education Administrators. Career & Technical Education Research, 44(1), 40–56.