Thing #2: Life Long Learning

Out of the 7 and 1/2 Habits of Life long learning, I think the easiest one for me is to take responsibility for my own learning. I find that I try to take advantage of opportunities given to me to or create opportunities for myself to continue learning. I know that if I do not push myself and seek opportunities to learn nobody will do if for me. Examples from this past year was I asked to go to the National School Reform Network conference in Houston and took advantage of the offer by the district to send us to the NSTA conference in New Orleans. I also find myself picking up new books, magazines, and education literature to continue to improve my knowledge about education and learning. Another way I try to take responsibility for my learning is by pushing the limits in my classroom. I try to tryout new ways to teach my students because I know that the only way I know if they will work well and benefit students is if I try them.

The hardest of they 7 and 1/2 habits for me is to use technology to my advantage. I am a little surprised at myself for having to admit this as my hardest habit. I do not have a fear of technology and I actually like it a lot but I do not take advantage of its power and what it can do to help me with students in my classroom. Some of the reasons I think this must be is that it can be time consuming to develop and add technology into the curriculum. I just finished my first year of teaching so it was all I could do to get a lesson together for the next day and I was too overwhelmed to add in technology. Also, sometimes I feel limited in the schools because we do not have access to the most updated teachnology. I am hoping that I will be better at incorporating technology next year. I think creating this blog and going throught the #23 Things professional development will help me improve my use of technology.

I was glad to learn about the 7 and 1/2 habits of lifelong learning. I think it will be helpful for me to come back and reevaluate myself on each of the 7 and 1/2 habits. I can learn the areas I need to improve and be proud of myself for the areas I am doing well. It will be interesting to see how the areas of strengths and weaknesses change over time.