Thing #2

When I was actually in the classroom, I taught reading in middle school. I used to tell my students that if they could learn to read and learn FROM reading, then they could teach themselves anything. I told them that they would never be dependent upon someone else to decide what was and wasn't important for them to know, because they would be able to determine that themselves. I am an avid reader and love any and all information, but am I, myself, truly a life-long learner?

The "habit" that I am weakest at is setting personal goals of any kind, not just learning. I am quite capable of setting and working out a plan for professional learning goals. But, when it comes to myself, sometimes I am not so organized. I think it is partially due to the fact that I am very visual and I will read whatever is put before me. So it is very easy for me to be introduced to something new and the next thing you know, I am all into it without really thinking it through. I will be hours into something and not quite know how I got there. I am also easily distracted when it comes to following a plan for a personal goal. For example, I recently did an online tutorial for the K-12 Databases that was supposed to take about 3 hours. It ended up taking me almost 6 because I kept going off here or there when I would get interested in something.

I believe that my strongest "habit" is taking responsibility for my own learning. I am always hearing colleagues saying how they wish the school would have an inservice or training for this or that. Or that they can't find anything they want to attend at the service center. Or, what's worse, they won't attend something by themselves. I just go out and look. And it isn't all about CPE hours for me either. For example, since this course was not offered by our service center or my school district, I don't know if the hours will count or not. I hope they do, but if not, at least I will have the learning. As a matter of fact, in case they don't count them, I have registered for an on-site at-risk conference that I know will count. And that I would attend even if it wouldn't because of the number of at-risk students I work with. I also am planning to do a few more online tutorials for the K-12 Databases because I just simply need to know about them. I am moving from a PK-1 campus to the high school campus next year and I just feel like this course and those on the databases are musts for me to be able to try and help these kids get excited about information. I don't even necessarily care if it is information they need for class. I just want them to get excited about finding out about the world.