As I scrolled through the slide show on habits of lifelong learners, the one habit that really jumped out at me was #2: Accept responsibility for your own learning. I am a huge proponent of personal responsibility in all aspects of life, and learning is no different. I feel that as our society evolves, or perhaps devolves, people like to blame others for everything from spilling hot coffee in our laps to failing a class. I have many theories and ideas behind this shift, but won't get into them here!
One of my goals in teaching is to foster personal responsibility and accountability. I've worked in some elementary schools where I sometimes feel like there is too much control over the students; for example, they must walk in pin-straight lines in the hallways and absolutely no talking...ever! Some teachers require their students to ask to get out of their seats to sharpen a pencil, get a tissue, or a retrieve a paper from their backpack. I don't want to be this teacher. Although, I can imagine there may be times when things are too chaotic and students are up and down and frequently distracting from the lesson. I'd like to find a balance. I think it's important for students to start taking responsibility for their actions; so if they leave my classroom everyday to use the bathroom and are gone for 10 minutes and miss out on classwork, they either lose points or have to figure out a way to make it up. Choices = consequences. Making good choices will yield desirable consequences.
The habit that is the most difficult for me is #1: Begin with the end in mind. As I continue my education, I keep hearing about the 'backwards design' whereby the teacher creates the assessment first and works backwards from there. Starting with the question, "What do I want the students to learn?" makes perfect sense, but I'm more of a 'go with the flow' type of person. Although I realize that teaching requires a lot of planning and forethought, so I'm going to have to spend more time thinking about what I want the end result to be.
Habit #4 can also be a challenge for me, too...I have confidence when learning certain subjects, but when it comes to something like Science...forget about it! I give up before I even get started. So that is something I should probably work on!
