How do you learn?

How do you handle learning something new?


It's an interesting question that I've been thinking about quite a bit recently.  Our school district is in the process of changing our e-mail platform.  We are moving from Outlook which I've used for over 20 years to Google which I've had a smattering of experience with for about two years.  The concept is basically the same in both platforms.  The new format is not terribly hard to learn.  I've had some hands-on help, and I've watched a couple of tutorial videos.  I'm going to make it, but the Google platform is still new for me.

A long-time colleague shared with me today that she can now do everything she could do in the old format, but each step just takes longer.  We laughed and replied to each other that our "learning curve" is steep!  I recently opened my Outlook account, and the settings are changed where I can no longer receive any mail there.  I commented to the person who was helping me that I actually "missed" my old account.  What did I miss, however?  Did I miss the comfort of what I could do?  Did I miss the fact that I really didn't need to think about what I was doing?


Let's shift gears to a recent conversation I had with a new student and her teacher. 

I was talking with a student who had just joined our building about how the transition to our school was for her.  The first thing she said was that she wasn't very good at reading.  Her teacher was quick to respond to both of us that she just hadn't learned everything yet.  The little girl then told me she couldn't do her math.  Her teacher replied even faster that we don't use "can't" when we are learning.  The new student then jumped into her math to get to work.


Learning anything new is a challenge, and it can be frustrating.  When I walk the halls in our school, I am still in awe of what our students are learning.  We ask them to live in a world where they are always learning something new.  We build scaffolds and supports to help them be successful.  We "pick them up" when they make mistakes, and we encourage them to learn from those mistakes.  We want kids to take risks, and we help them.

Do we model this for our students?

As I move into a new "in the cloud" method of computing, I'm grateful I work in a school where it's OK to not know everything yet, and we don't use "can't" when we are learning.

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 16, 2014 at 6:10 PM

    Thanks for being a great model for our students and Staff. Loved the article

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 29, 2014 at 1:02 PM

    Nice! I want to stay on the positive side and try to focus on how this is a learning OPPORTUNITY. Thanks Dave!
    Ange

    ReplyDelete

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