Thing One – Life Long Learning
They say timing is everything. This Friday was a teacher work day and I was excited about doing some teacher training. I’ve been so busy in the technical end of my job that I had not really spent much time working with my teachers to expand what they could do using a computer – either in a productivity respect or in a student interaction activity. Friday was going to allow me to touch base on both. In fact, even before Friday I created a Tegrity movie and a Jing movie to help teachers learn a new easy method to backup their files to the server. I was really happy about that because it meant I was a life long learner – and had learned a new way to communicate!
Some people jumped right in, listened to the videos and followed the instructions. I knew everyone wouldn’t be willing to take the time to do this, so I also offered hands on training. The hands on training was a little frustrating as sometimes teachers do not make good students. I persevered and hopefully everyone got something from the training. I also facilitated our school’s first Activboard User’s Support Group. We only have seven total at our school but the session was the highlight of my day as everyone seemed to get a lot out of it.
I would say my most difficult habit is “Viewing Problems as Challenges” (not crisis). For the most part it often depends on the day for me. Sometimes I’m good at this habit but sometimes I want immediate answers and solutions and make a big hairy deal of something I find frustrating. It is a good habit to try (on most days) to see these min-crises as challenges that you can overcome. I do feel, that if you cry over nothing – you end up with something to cry about! Somehow, you attract something really problematic!
The one I find easiest is the“Accept Responsibility for Your Own Learning” – I am so curious about many things but sometime get so overwhelmed by all the things I want to do, that I do nothing! I am very excited that I signed up for this class as it is really covering several things I want to learn as personal and professional goals.
I think the one that says Begin with the End in Mind will be the most important. Last week I would have said, I simply want to come out on the other end of this course as someone who knows what the big fuss about Web 2.0 is! Now I’d like my outcome to be the use of some of these tools with my students (the teachers of my school). I think as my confidence builds, I may make some more adjustments to my goals and maybe even someday teach a class like this. Now, that is one scary ending (for now).
