Thing # 1

As I watched the 7 1/2 lifelong learning habits, I found a little bit of myself in all of the habits. However, some were closer to my own personal habits than others. All of the habits were very reasonable, but I found that Habit # 1 (Begin with the end in mind) is definetely the easiest habit for me to acquire and keep throughout my lifelong learning process. I've always lived (and learned) to find the rainbow with the pot of gold at the end of the road. Even as an undergraduate, I always looked forward to that final day (graduation) and that's what kept me going through all of the classes and challenges that I faced on that journey. I would have to say that Habit # 3 (View problems as challenges) would be the most difficult habit for me to acquire. As a first year teacher, I've been faced with several bumps in the road that have slowed me down just a notch. I've always came out of those challenges with a smile on my face, but some were quite difficult for me to get past. I believe that I need to begin to see these challenges as a learning opportunity that I WILL get past and continue on with my life as a teacher. For example, I've got 4/18 students in my class that come from hispanic families. One of which is a very limited english speaker. This student and his non-english speaking family has thrown me for a loop as a first year teacher. However, I've made some significant progress in my ability to get around the language barrier. For instance, I had an ELL translator sit in on our parent-teacher conference, and that allowed me to communicate with his mother; whereas, if I hadn't had the translator, it would have been very difficult for me to talk with her about her son and some of the progress that he had been making in my class this year. This student continues to surprise with me challenges everyday, but I do believe that after my first year is over, I will be a better teacher because of this particular student.

As I continue to play with Web 2.0, I am constnatly surprised with all the technological tools that it has to offer. I would love to learn how to effectively navigate through that giant system of tools and be able to implement those in my classroom to be a more effective first-grade teacher. When I was setting up this blog, I really didn't know what to expect. I was surprised by how easy it was to set it up and begin writing my first blog. It only took about five minutes for me to set it up, and I believe that I've been typing for longer that it took me to set the whole blog up.