Thing 1- Life Long Learning

I like the idea of lifelong learning. Learning is when one acquires a new skill or knowledge. We are always gaining knowledge and experience through everything around us; our home, shopping, TV, computer/internet, friends, work, cooking, and much more. 


Usually people tend to think that learning only happens when one is getting educated in some formal way. In the tutorial, 7 & 1/2 Habits, I learned that when one chooses willingly to create learning habits they can use the lifelong learning to their benefit and apply that learning the their daily lives. 


Out of the 7 & 1/2 habits have have some habits that I have adapted to and some that are difficult for me to adapt to.


Adapted Habits:


- Begin with the end in mind. Many times I do this. I will have a goal in mind and  then I will plan accordingly. I will keep asking myself what is it that can make me reach that goal? When I keep the end in mind, the process to reach that end seems easy.  
- Have confident in yourself as a competent, effective learner. I have confident in myself because I will usually commit to something when I know I am able to accomplish it and learn if fully. Either that or I will push myself to get the task done! 
- Create your own tool box. O do I love tools! Anything I can use to enhance my knowledge or make things easier, I am all ears and anxious to learn it. I also love to take what I have discovered and share it with others. 
- Use Technology to our Advantage. If technology can my make task or tasks easy, I use it! Technology is a very innovative and interactive tool that helps one gain multiple new skills and experiences unknowingly. For some to adapt to technology can be difficult, but for me, its like trying to figure out how to play a game. You learn new things along the way while keeping what you already learned in mind. In other words, you have to figure the "technology" out before giving up on it. 
- Teach and Mentor Others. Since my profession is an educator, its in my nature to want to work with others and teach others the new and past "stuff" I know. Its an amazing feeling when you teach someone something new and they have an AH ha moment or a WOW why didn't I think of that moment! :0) 
- Play! Play is important for learning and brain development for younger age groups and as mentioned in the tutorials, adults need that same play. Even through play I have learned a lot, weather it be sports play, technology play, or just simply reading for fun. 


Difficult to adapt:


- Accepting responsibility for your own learning. I am a very reserved go with the follow type of person, therefore I am usually not so vocal about my ideas, and when I am they seem not to be heard as much so I listen to other ideas and adapt them to meet the needs of my students. Although, when people see what I am doing with my students they do come and ask about those ideas and want to adapt them for their students
- View problems as challenges. Its hard to see problems as challenges. When something goes wrong, its instantly a problem. Usually I will overcome that problem or find a way to overcome it, which makes it more of a challenge I overcame, but this is not what I perceive it as. Maybe thats what I need to view it as and see how I feel about it. 



My LEARNING CONTRACT by: Kiran Ali