My best learning experience

Welcome to you Cohort 21 Blog. This journal is an integral part of your Cohort 21 experience. Here you will reflect, share , collaborate  and converse as you move through the C21 Action Plan process. 

This is your first post and an opportunity to share a little bit about yourself as a learner and leader. Please respond the to the following prompts below:

1) Reflect on your own personal learning journey and K-12 education. Identify one learning experience that you can point to as having made a significant impact on some element of your own growth and development. It could be that teacher and subject that really sparked significant growth or a trip that opened your eyes to a whole new world or way of thinking or a non-catastrophic failure that you learned so much from.  Briefly describe the learning experience and identify the various supports, structures, mindsets and relational ingredients that were put in place by the teacher or facilitator that directly contributed to your growth and success. 

I know that this is not K-12 education;  however, this learning experience had the greatest impact on my growth as a student.  I will never forget my 2nd year university Professor, Mary Louise McAllister. She loved what she did, and you could see her passion come through in her teaching.  I also remember the final project in her class, a research paper and presentation on the impacts of micro-credit programs on women in Brazil. After a semester of researching, I was swimming in a pool of photocopied and highlighted articles and sticky notes with absolutely no idea how to pull it all together.  I remember thinking, how had I come this far in my university career without any solid skills when everyone else seemed to have it all together. Finally, I mustered up some courage, emailed Mary Louise, and scheduled a meeting. I entered her office, shared my struggles, and she pulled out a piece of chart paper, and said, “tell me what you know.” Forty-five minutes later, we had created the most amazing flow chart.  She handed me the chart and said “fantastic research, and now you have a project.” My mind was blown, this was my BIG lightbulb moment. Looking back at this experience, Mary Louise showed me understanding, spent time with me, and gave me the tools I needed to feel empowered to keep moving forward. She taught me something important about my own learning process, and what I needed to thrive and survive at school. To this day I still use  flow charts for everything.

2) What is the one Learning skill (MOE) or Approach to Learning (IB ATL) that you feel is MOST important in this day and age? How do you intentionally build it into your curriculum and develop it in your students throughout the year?

One of the things I admire most is a student is intrinsic motivation.  I once asked a “superstar student” what she did that make her so motivated to learn and absorb information.  For her, reflecting on her process was more important than any grade. She embodied the core of what it meant to be a self-regulated learner.  In my opinion, I believe that students stop setting goals and monitoring progress/processes as a learner because they heavily rely on feedback from others (ex. teachers and parents); this takes the control, power and motivation away from the student.  Giving choice in the product and the process is one way that I have used to increase motivation and give the students some control over their learning process. My hope is that by giving students the ability to choose their path allows them set mini-goals to achieve a final product, and gives them an opportunity to monitor their process and progress as learners.  On a regular basis, a quick how am I feeling exit ticket or a meeting, is useful to start looking at what’s working, what’s not working; basically, a quick way to get a gage on where we are at and what is needed (or needs to reevaluated) to keep moving forward.  At the end a project it is great to point the journey and reflect on how it felt at times.

3) Insert an image below that best captures the essence of that Learning Skill or ATL. (Click on the “Helpful WordPress Video Tutorials” link in the left hand sidebar to learn how to insert it)

 

https://2012route66trip.com/2013/05/16/how-to-reach-your-goals-and-not-give-up-by-neila-rey/