Thing #1

Thing #1 is all about life-long learning.  Just think, how boring would life be if we stopped learning new things?  The 7.5 Habits of Life-Long Learners provides some great ways to incorporate learning into life's events, with some easier than others.  As I perused this PowerPoint slide show there was no narration or sound, as I thought there would be, so any explanation for the tips are a result of my own pondering and reflections.  For me, the easiest "habit" was #7: Teach / Mentor Others.  I enrolled in the MAT Program at Austin Peay because teaching is a part of who I am, not what I am going to do.  I have always loved learning new information and sharing that with others.  Heck, I even study for exams as if I were teaching an invisible classroom, just talking out loud into the (hopefully empty) room.  The teacher/mentor is a role that, I feel, fits me very naturally. 

 

 However, not all of the 7.5 Habits come very naturally.  Habit #6: Use Technology to Your Advantage is something I must actively work on and could use some improvement.  I have a basic understanding of programs like Word, PowerPoint and Excel that give me a passing ability to use them, but don't ask me to do anything fancy.  Past the basic functions, I call for my husband to come help me.  He is far better with technology than I am, so I tend to let him fix/set-up whatever technology we're using without challenging myself to also learn it.  This is where I need to become a better learner. 

 

I am so looking forward to all of the skills we will learn in this class because I have wanted to learn how to do many of these things and never knew where to start, or sometimes what it was even called.  I think fluency with the most current technology can really grab students' attention and lend more credibility to a teacher, since they can speak the same technology "language" as their students.  It's a great way to keep student engagement and be creative.  Plus, as a science teacher I really like the idea of using technology to be connected to the most recent information and scientific findings available.  Learning how to use blogs, wikis and other educational Web 2.0 sites will be a great asset to me as a teacher.  These skills can make my class more interactive and provide better access to information in order for my students to succeed.  Setting up this blog was a cinch, and I look forward to playing around with it and learning all of the things it has to offer.