By Cthomasuscg
I could sit here and write about what I’ve been practicing, or that I’ve been trying to learn at least three words a day for the past week or so, (Today I learned morning, afternoon and night) but that could get pretty boring.. at least I think so.
But,
the day I had today made me think about this learning project…
In a whorl (or wacksack as Dean would say) of assignments, papers, projects, work, planning out your next semester, being sick, midterms, having a social life, sleeping, eating, exercising, and going to class on top of that…….. where do we find the time to fit more things into our brain, to cram more skills up in there?
Fact of the matter… we gotta do what we gotta do.
Because we’re learning things at such a rapid pace, and most of it is rote memorization, it feels kind of liberating to learn a language at my own pace. I can’t say I’ve been working diligently on ASL every spare moment I have.. because I don’t have very many.
It’s liberating to learn HOW I want to learn. Maybe I don’t want to read a textbook on the history of ASL or its theories, maybe I don’t find that to be relevant to me at all. So I don’t have to. Maybe I don’t want to go to class 3 times a week for 50 minutes and stare at my prof as he reads through the slides that he already uploaded onto the internet, word for word. I can learn when I want, from whoever I want. I don’t have to recite the prof’s opinions on a midterm, either.
And the internet gives us that capability, to be in control of our learning. This learning project is actually one of the things that we have some freedom in, in university. We don’t get very much of that to be honest.. even in teacher education.
For me, when is the best time to learn ASL? When I am absolutely stressed to the max, have 5 big papers/projects/assignments/midterms due within four days. I’ve made it one of my stress-relievers (in addition to shopping). Where is the best place? Wherever I feel like it.. That has suitable wifi.
That is the beauty of my learning project.
Today made me think about why I was apprehensive about this project at the very first mention of it. I regret being apprehensive, because A) I’m learning something I have always wanted to and B) I’m being graded on an assignment that I do when I want to, however I want to, I just have to document my thinking…
Makes you think about your other classes.
I’ve seen a lot of tweets and blog posts about how stressed everyone is, not just in ECMP355, and I wanted to address it.
All I can say is just keep swimming’, it’s already worth it.
I hear you when you say it’s hard to find the time, I have the same problem with my learning project. I found an app for my smartphone which has been helping me learn in whatever spare moments I have throughout the day. Yay Wifi!
I realize there are some things I need to revise in this project. You’ve kinda accomplished what I wanted in the first place. Taking pleasure in learning, owning learning and being open to find new and powerful ways to learn, those are essentially the goals I hoped others would find. I understand that with the load of work everyone carries, it’s difficult to make this something different but I truly wanted it to be a different experience.
In the end, I hope this experience would have value and purpose as you all move into your own classrooms. Viewing the learning as a learner, not just a teacher and understanding they joy, struggle and empowerment of learning.
What I love about this exploration is that you are really thinking about instruction is “delivered” and how differently it feels when you are learning things on your own. What a great understanding to bring into your own classroom in the future. I hear you saying that choice, flexibility, portability, and interest are all part of what you are enjoying. And fun
The joy you are having in discovering this really is evident
Thanks for sharing!
i think its fantastic that you are learning more about how you learn – as you experience other things in life – getting permanent employment, having a family, going skydiving, ziplining or riding a pedal bike, the more we know about ourselves as learners the more we can advocate for our preferred learning style and adapt when that style isnt available. in the wack sack of things you are learning this term, learning about how you learn maybe near the top of things you will take away and have forever.
ps Dean do i get credit for using wack sack in my response?
+136 points.
(we often do random scoring in this class. We don’t follow any scoring scheme.)
My favourite part of what you have said here is that by learning this way we get “to be in control of our learning.” What a powerful way to look at Education as a whole. The challenge is being educators who can help students reach the outcome assignment by our mandate, while at the same time letting them take control of how and what they want to learn. Thanks for this post… really well thought out.
Hey I’m allie From BV’s class in Austin Texas. I want to explain to you about directional verbs. I will explain to you more when we Skype.
Hey my name’s Katie. I’m an ASL 3 student in Austin, Texas and I thought I might be able to help with something that a lot of people have trouble with (even me sometimes!) and that is finger spelling and the ABC’s. Hope to see you soon when we Skype!
Hey, I’m charlie from BV’s ASL 3 class. I’ll explain for you the four parameters of signs. Hope the recovery from getting your wisdom teeth out is as quick and painless so possible.
Hi, I saw your video, and my teacher would like me to help you with facial expression,can’t wait to Skype.
Hi my name is samantha, and I am a part of an asl class, we all saw your you video and I would like to help you with negation.
Hi I’m from the ASL class in Austin. I want to help you with your final! Hope it’s going well and good luck with you surgery!!! Kris
Hi there! Saw your video and thought it was great that you are wanting to learn more about ASL. I am a Westlake ASL 3 student and can’t wait to help you understand Classifiers.
As I read through the comments on this post this ear to ear grin crawled across my face. And I’m not the one who picked up a bunch of other ASL students as teachers to help me learn!
I wonder how this makes you feel Stacey? I mean, I almost feel like I want to learn ASL too! How cool is that to basicly pick up a team of teachers younger than you who each have a plan about how they want to help you learn?!
I’m also wondering how this personal experience of yours might scale. How could I orchestrate that for my students? Any thoughts about how you might do that for your own future students?
Wow, I was amazed when I saw all of these comments. I’m so excited to learn from real people who have a plan. Whenever I learn by myself, I tend to not really make a lesson plan for myself, I just try learn whatever I happen to stumble upon. I think this will be a lot more productive, and fun!
It helps too that I picked something for this learning project that I thought would be beneficial to learn for my life and future career, so I think that your students, whether they are the teacher or learner, need to have a passion for what they are teaching or learning.
I guess all I can say is have the connections…Dean has some awesome connections, and that is how all of this got started. I hope that I can build a personal learning network as big as that to provide my students with things like the first hand experience that all of Barbara’s students, and Barbara herself have. Afterall, we can’t be experts at everything, so we have to find the people who are.
Thanks for the comment, it’s a pretty neat thing going on here!
Hey everyone from Barbara Vinson’s class. I was really excited to get so many comments from all of you, and I’m even more excited to be learning from you all! Thank you so much!
Pingback: Personalized Assesment Part 2 | Ideas and Thoughts
Stacey,
My students as well as me are excited to help you. Let me know when we can SKYPE? Maybe we can get together after the Thanksgiving break. We will be back in full swing Nov. The 28 th. Monday
Barbara Vinson
Pingback: Personalized Assessment | Dean Shareski