Thing #1

7 1/2 Habits

I had never heard of the 7 1/2 Habits of Life Long Learners before and I found it very interesting. I enjoyed the fact that the 1/2 habit was play. I can see being a teacher how it could be easy to forget this necessary habit and why it was included. No matter what grade someone teaches, everyone is more engaged when fun is involved. I would say that the easiest one for me out of the 7 1/2 habits would be habit 7 to teach and mentor others. When I was growing up I always enjoyed helping others and people felt comfortable talking to me about problems they were having. 

The hardest habit I would say would be habit 4 to have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner. Although I was an outlet for friends growing up, I lacked the confidence in my own studies. I was almost a year younger than most of my peers in my grade and I was put in all the honors classes. I struggled at times especially in math and questioned if I should be in the honors classes. I always felt like the "dumb" one in the class (especially Trigonometry). When it came to Calculus I didn't have that same feeling. The difference? The teacher... It is amazing how much a learning environment can shape students' learning. When you have a warm and safe classroom where it is ok to make mistakes a student can feel confident as a learner. I only hope to give my future students that type of learning environment that my Calculus teacher gave me. 

I heard of people blogging before, but I always thought it was a place for people to complain about things (I guess people save that for Facebook now). This introduction into blogging has taught me that blogging doesn't have to be a place where people write and complain but it can be a fun and exciting experience. I honestly never thought I would be a blogger, but with this post I am now officially a blogger. I hope to learn new and fun tools that I can use to say connected with my students and be a successful teacher!