From the TCMS Media Center

After listening to the explanation of the 7 1/2 Habits of Effective Lifelong Learners, I think I will be most challeneged by habits 2 and 7 1/2.  Habit 2, taking responsibility for my own learning, has the potential of being a challege for me simply because of a myriad of additional responsibilities both professionally and personally.  I need to daily challenge myself into facing deadlines — no matter the project — in an effieicnt manner.  Procrastination can not be a habit that I exhibit regardless of the temptation to do so.  I guess I can be accused of being guilty of looking the other way when major deadlines approach like a speeding bullet.  I am going to choose, however, to not make an issue of the deadlines and just meet each one in a timely fashion.

The Play! habit will be a challenge for me also, and this habit will be the most important for me.  I serve a faculty of 60+ teachers and 630 students daily without the assistance of a paraprofessional.  Needless to say, my work day is full of helping others achieve their goals.  Homelife, while not as hectic, is also full of responsibilties and duties that won’t get completed if I don’t do them. Taking time to play, making mistakes and doing things over again just are not part of my daily schedule. Typically, I take the path of least resistance — do the job right the first time and move on.  I will need to really challenge myself to take the time to play, risk making mistakes, and see what learning comes from that.  Having said all of that, I do realize that I, personally, learn things by doing.  I will need to consistently remind myself that the learning I will be doing through this course will become more concrete to me as I practice, make mistakes, and then correct those mistakes.  If I make a few mistakes along the way and determine how to fix them  then I will be more equipped to help faculty members and students quickly fix any mistakes that they may make along their learning paths.

 The easiest habits for me will be habits 1 and 3.  Habit 1, begin with the end in mind, is easy for me becuase I have already identified some areas in my professional path to utilize these skills.  I am excited to learn new things, and how these new can help me create new ways of encouraging learning in my school. The third habit, view problems as a challenge, will also be easy for me.  Since I am approximately 200 miles away from my coach, I will have no choice but to see the problems as challenges.  Phone calls and emails will be a wonderful aide that I am thankful for which I have access, but with the physical distance between us, I know that I will not have easy access to her physical presence which will in turn  force me to figure thins out and make them work.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS